Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital 2 articles published in JoVE Medicine Obtaining Quality Extended Field-of-View Ultrasound Images of Skeletal Muscle to Measure Muscle Fascicle Length Amy N. Adkins1,4,5, Wendy M. Murray1,2,3,4,5 1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 3Department of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 4Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, 5Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital This study describes how to obtain high quality musculoskeletal images using the extended field-of-view ultrasound (EFOV-US) method for the purpose of making muscle fascicle length measures. We apply this method to muscles with fascicles that extend past the field-of-view of common traditional ultrasound (T-US) probes. Medicine Performing Permanent Distal Middle Cerebral with Common Carotid Artery Occlusion in Aged Rats to Study Cortical Ischemia with Sustained Disability Christina Wayman*1,2, Denise A. Duricki*1,2, Lisa A. Roy3, Barbara Haenzi1, Shi-Yen Tsai4, Gwendolyn Kartje4,5,6, John S. Beech7, Diana Cash2, Lawrence Moon1 1Department of Neuroimaging, James Black Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, University of London, 3Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, Wellcome Surgical Institute, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 4Research Service, Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, 5Neurology Service, Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, 6Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Neuroscience Research Institute, Loyola University Chicago, 7Department of Oncology, The Gray Institute for Radiation, Oncology and Biology, University of Oxford 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.