Permeability of the blood-brain barrier to different doses of diatrizoate meglumine-60.

High doses of diatrizoate meglumine-60 were administered intravenously in varying concentrations to determine what effect they might have on the blood-brain barrier. In dogs, doses of 4 ml / kg and above appeared to disrupt parts of the blood-brain barrier, disruption being manifested on computed tomographic scans as enhancement and on corresponding brain sections as Evans blue stains. Disruption of the blood-brain barrier was variable from animal to animal. Limited transmission electron microscopic studies suggested that this disruption was accompanied by swelling of the perivascular astrocytic foot processes.