Surgically induced angiogenesis to compensate for hemodynamic cerebral ischemia.

Abstract
The ischemic brain may stimulate angiogenesis to compensate for impaired circulation. We examined the conditions promoting such angiogenesis to provide the basis for surgical treatment.The degree of cerebral hemodynamic stress was studied in patients with moyamoya disease using the stable xenon-enhanced computed tomographic acetazolamide tolerance test and positron emission tomography. Patients were subjected to surgery in which scalp arteries were placed on the cerebral cortex without vessel-to-vessel anastomosis. Formation of the newly vascularized collateral network connecting the implanted artery to cortical arteries was assessed angiographically 12 to 17 months after surgery.Preoperative average resting cerebral blood flow for cortex that developed revascularization of cortical arteries was not significantly different from that for cortex that did not. However, cortex that developed revascularization had an average preoperative increase of blood flow by acetazolamide treatment of -3.29 +/- 4.6 mL/min...