Animal models of stroke are procedures undertaken in animals (including non-human primates) intending to provoke pathophysiological states that are similar to those of human stroke to study basic processes or potential therapeutic interventions in this disease.
Aim is the extension of the knowledge on and/or the improvement of medical treatment of human stroke.
The term stroke subsumes cerebrovascular disorders of different etiologies, featuring diverse pathophysiological processes.
Reasons for this are (Dirnagl 1999): Stroke models are carried out on animals which inevitably suffer during the procedure.
The following arguments can be produced to give reason for the conduction of animal experiments in stroke research: