Thrombus Development and Fragmentation in Rats Using Non-Enhanced MRI

Abdel Bidar¹, Frank Risse¹, Anna Ravnefjord², Susanna Pehrsson², Arno Nauerth³, Margareta Elg², Paul D. Hockings¹

To our knowledge this is the first study to show the time course of thrombus formation over the first 4 days. Maximal average thrombus size was obtained 50 minutes after thrombus induction with no marked decrease over the following 4 days. Thrombus fragmentation was seen in several rats which potentially explains some of the variability seen in thrombosis models. An excellent correlation was found for MRI volume measurement and wet weight. MRI can follow thrombus formation, growth, fragmentation and dissolution in the same animal and thus drastically reduce the number of animals needed.