Early cardiac damage after subarachnoid hemorrhage in rats

Detection of the myocardial damage in the early stage of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is impossible without a good animal model. We investigated the feasibility of using immunohistochemical cardiac troponin I (cTnI) staining to detect the early myocardial damage in rats subject to SAH by endovascular perforation. SAH induced increases in mean blood pressure, heart rate, intracranial pressure, plasma norepinephrine and cTnI accompanied with electrocardiogram abnormalities. The heart was dilated. The myocardium revealed coagulative myocytolysis and remarkable loss of myocardial tissue cTnI in myocytolytic areas within 3 h after SAH. Thus, we create a rat SAH model that can be applied in studying the mechanisms of the early myocardial damage following SAH and for evaluating therapeutic strategies in SAH patients.