OBJECTIVETo probe into the establishing method and the evaluating system for rat model of ischemic stroke with qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome (QDBS).

METHODSA rat model of ischemic stroke of QDBS was established by continual exhaustive swimming followed with middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), and evaluated by analyzing the changes of exterior signs, tongue figure, hemorrheologic characters and brain histomorphology in the model rats.

RESULTSThe model rats showed a state of QDBS in the course of continual exhaustive swimming, such as slower weight gain, postponed food intake, darker tongue and longer sublingual veins; and presented the characteristics of cerebral ischemia with QDBS syndrome after MCAO, they were inactive, weak, and hemiplegic, with dark purple tongue and longer blue sublingual veins. Moreover, hemorrheologic examinations showed blood hyperviscosity and high platelet aggregation rate, and histomorphologic examinations showed a special figure of ischemic changes.

CONCLUSIONContinual exhausting swimming followed by MCAO is a method for establishing a rat model of ischemic stroke with QDBS syndrome, and its evaluating system could be constituted by multiple criteria, including exterior signs, tongue figure, hemorrheologic and histomorphologic indexes, etc.