22 Apr 22. Featured Article

Link to article on Stroke

Authors

Joanna M. Wardlaw and David S. Liebeskind

Abstract

Stroke research has largely focused on blood supply to the brain, particularly via large arteries leading from the heart, the muscular intracranial large arteries, large cerebral veins and venous sinuses, and more recently perforating arterioles, capillaries, and venules.

However, these blood vessels only serve part of the brain’s fluid management, nutrient delivery, and waste clearance system.

The other, and until recently largely neglected, aspect of brain fluid and waste management is the system that flushes the brain, draining interstitial and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and waste from the cranial cavity.

Details of this non–blood-vessel brain circulation are incomplete, but there is now enough clinical relevance for it to be the focus of this Advances in Stroke: Diagnosis and Imaging, particularly as key elements are now visible on routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Keywords

• Brain
• Cerebrospinal fluid
• Cerebrovascular disorders
• Edema
• Extra cellular fluid
• Hydrocephalus
• Meninges