Due to limitations in anaesthetic protocol, fMRI studies of recovery following ischaemic stroke in rodents show high variability and must use large numbers of animals. This study uses a novel anaesthetic protocol which gives a highly reproducible BOLD signal in healthy animals to study changes in response to forepaw stimulation in 10 rats following middle cerebral artery occlusion. Even with the improved protocol, high variability between animals following MCAO is a confounding factor, and while a trend towards hyperactivation followed by return to baseline is seen, a larger number of animals is still required for longitudinal studies.
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