Complex intracranial arterial anatomy in swine is unsuitable for cerebral infarction projects.

OBJECTIVE

To see whether swine provide a suitable animal model for cerebral ischemia research projects related to apoptosis. Swine angiograms had not been obtained previously in our institution.

METHODS

We performed angiography on an anesthetized pig. A right femoral artery cannulation was carried out, and angiographic images of the right cerebral arteries were obtained.

RESULTS

We found that the swine cerebral circulatory system demonstrated a plexus of very small vessels, rete mirabile, in the base of the brain that was perfused by the ascending pharyngeal artery and reconstituted into the internal carotid artery downstream.

CONCLUSION

Because of the presence of the rete mirabile, the swine brain circulatory system is not amenable to selective, intracranial, angiographic catheter-mediated infarction of cerebral arteries. Surgical occlusion of the common carotid or ascending pharyngeal artery, although technically possible, was also excluded as a method of creating reliable, reproducible cerebral ischemia because of the prompt and robust circle of Willis cross-perfusion that was observed on the angiograms.