Performing Permanent Distal Middle Cerebral with Common Carotid Artery Occlusion in Aged Rats to Study Cortical Ischemia with Sustained Disability

Here we present a protocol to produce permanent distal middle cerebral artery occlusion in elderly female rats with simultaneous occlusion of the carotid arteries to generate large cortical infarcts and sustained deficits. We show confirmation of the lesion size using structural MRI at 24 hr and 8 weeks after stroke.