Methods: Thirty-seven male Wistar-Albino rats were divided into an edema group (n=30) and a control group (n=7). Animals in the edema group were subjected to focal freeze injury in the left parietal dura. The control rats were not subjected to freeze injury or any other manipulation or drug. All the rats were decapitated 24 hours after the injury in the edema group, and brain tissue sialic acid levels were determined using Warren's thiobarbituric acid assay.

Results: The rats in the edema group had significantly higher cerebral tissue sialic acid levels than the rats in the control group.

Conclusion: There is still lack of consensus in the literature, but these study results indicate that high sialic acid levels in cerebral tissue with vasogenic edema may reflect the severity of brain injury, and may be a useful marker of severity of edema in the clinical setting. Keywords : Blood brain barrier, brain edema, sialic acid