Spinal cord emboli in dogs and monkeys and their relevance to aortic atheroma in man.

Abstract

A catheter giving rise to thrombotic emboli and platelet aggregates was suspended in the aorta of dogs and monkeys in an attempt to duplicate some of the possible effects of human aortic atheroma. Damage and occlusions were confined to small vessels and spinal cord infarets were mainly small and in the central gray matter. Infarets in border zones between the central and peripheral anterior spinal branches could sometimes be related to multiple proximal occlusions in these arteries. The morphology of some of the infarets was similar to those of uncertain cause, which has been described in arterioselerotic subjects; and it is suggested that emboli arising in an atheromatous aorta could be a cause of spinal cord lesions in man.