Hypercholesterolemia increases vasospasm resulting from basilar artery subarachnoid hemorrhage in rabbits which is attenuated by Vitamin E

Background: Aneurysm rupture results in subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) with subsequent vasospasm in the cerebral and cerebellar major arteries. In recent years, there has been increasing evidence that hypercholesterolemia plays a role in the pathology of SAH. It is known that hypercholesterolemia is one of the major risk factors for the development of atherosclerosis. Among the factors that have been found to retard the development of atherosclerosis is the intake of a sufficient amount of Vitamin E. An inverse association between serum Vitamin E and coronary heart disease mortality has been demonstrated in epidemiologic studies. Therefore, we tested, in an established model of enhanced cholesterol feed in rabbits, the effects of hypercholesterolemia on vasospasm after SAH by using computed tomography (CT) angiograms of the rabbit basilar artery; in addition, we tested the effects of Vitamin E on these conditions, which have not been studied up to now.