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. 2017 Jun 2;2(11):e92512. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.92512

Figure 3. Delayed decompression increases long-term blood flow in the spinal cord.

Figure 3

(A) Schematic representation of the technique that measures spinal cord blood flow using fluorescent microparticles injected into the mouse heart. Fluorescence absorbance of microparticles in blood and spinal cord was measured and the obtained values were normalized to a standard curve. (B) At 5 weeks after early decompression, blood flow reached 33.2 ± 20.8 ml/min/100 g in the DCM-E + Dec group, whereas animals in the DCM-E group had a blood flow of 23.2 ±12.2 ml/min/100 g. Age-matched naive animals had blood flow values of 42.1 ± 13.5 ml/min/100 g. Naive animals (n = 6), DCM-E (n = 7), DCM-E + Dec (n = 6). (C) At 5 weeks after delayed surgical decompression, blood flow was significantly increased to 55.10 ml/min/100 g in the DCM-D + Dec group compared with 24.2 ml/min/100 g in the DCM-D group. *P < 0.05, Mann-Whitney U test. Age-matched naive animals presented blood flow values of 40 ml/min/100 g ± 13.3 ml/min/100 g. Naive animals (n = 6), DCM-D (n = 5), and DCM-D + Dec (n = 6). All data are presented as mean ± SEM. DCM, degenerative cervical myelopathy; Dec, decompression; DCM-E, age-matched early sham decompressed group; DCM-D, age-matched delayed sham decompressed group.