Grant: Doctoral Research Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

With ~55,000 new cases each year in Canada, the social, individual, and economic costs of this ischemic stroke are unparalleled. Despite advances in treating this disabling disease, not all patients benefit. This proposal aims to improve outcomes for all patients, but especially those that do not benefit from current therapies by investigating whether intra-arterial chilled saline (IACS) infusion is a safe and effective treatment. IACS treatment involves flushing the injured tissue with cold saline. Previous research has shown that IACS is beneficial. However, previous research is homogenous and not aligned with clinical reality (e.g., only studied in young, healthy, male rats, creating a mismatch with reality). In Year 1, we will develop our stroke model using hypertensive rats, a key risk factor. We will vary the stroke duration, and assess brain injury at 48 hours post-stroke. Our brain injury severity measurements in Year 1 will inform groups for Year 2 and 3. In Year 2, we will randomly assign male AND female rats to moderate, severe, and very-severe stroke, and either treat them with IACS or sham IACS. HYPOTHESIS: moderate and severe injuries will benefit from IACS treatment, but very-severe brain injuries may require more prolonged cooling. Our outcome measures are behavioural impairment (using established tests) and brain injury volume. Year 3 will be like Year 2, except rats will survive for 28 days, rather than 48 hours, and the treatment will be prolonged with a skull cooling device. Long-term studies are lacking in current literature. As before, we will assess behavioural deficits and brain injury. HYPOTHESIS: the combined hypothermia groups will have better outcomes than controls. Altogether, my research proposal will inform whether IACS is a safe and effective treatment for ischemic stroke by carefully considering clinical reality and addressing the limitations of current research (e.g., using multiple injury sizes, both sexes, hypertensive animals).