Visualization of the ischemic core on native human brain slices by potassium staining method

The potassium staining method is based on the formation of potassium cobaltnitrite crystals after the treatment by sodium cobaltnitrite of brain tissue. The degree of staining correlates with the distinct potassium content of infracted and non-infarcted brain areas.The aim of the present study was to prove that potassium staining technique is a reliable method for localization of ischemic core on native whole hemisphere cryosections of stroke patients. Furthermore, potassium stained sections have been compared with appropriate postmortem MRI images of respective brains.Brains of stroke patients were removed within 24 h after death and postmortem MRI scanning was performed. Horizontal cryosections of frozen brains were taken and potassium staining was performed. Using the stained whole hemisphere sections as “map” tissue sampling has been made in order to determine water and potassium content.Potassium content of infarcted samples was significantly decreased in comparison with intact regions (0.7346 ± 0.2142 mg/L and 1.928 ± 0.447 mg/L, respectively, p < 0.01) (mean values ± SD). Water content of affected areas (expressed in percents) has been found to be above non-infarcted regions (81.657% ± 4.07 and 72.96% ± 6.37, respectively, p < 0.01).According to our results the potassium staining method of human whole hemisphere brain sections reliably differentiates focal ischemic areas from intact brain regions. In conclusion, the postmortem examination of ischemic brain could be started with making the potassium map of infarcted whole hemisphere cryosections providing guidance for targeted tissue sampling and base of comparison for further examinations.