Project Overview

Stroke is one of the leading causes of cerebral palsy in children that carried to term, and 60% have lifelong consequences.  Currently, treatment of childhood stroke is limited to prevention of more strokes.  Dr. Domi’s research uses specialized imaging techniques to study the role of the blood-brain barrier, a mechanism that can cause further injury to the brain caused by the stroke.  Because this cannot yet be studied in children, it was studied in a juvenile rat model of stroke. This research will provide new information about the function of the blood-brain barrier the potential to lead to the testing of treatment options that may be more effective, but cannot be currently used in childhood stroke because the risks are unknown.