Objective To analyze the correlation between three evaluation methods of middle cerebral artery occlusion and focal cerebral ischemia, and to explore a new method and standard for the evaluation of the model. Methods Thirty healthy adult male SD rats were randomly divided into a sham-operated group (n=20) and model group. According to Zea-Longa procedure,we established the disease model to detect the changes in cerebral blood flow before and after surgery. The resulted cerebral infarction area was taken as gold standards. Then we analyzed the correlation between the standards and the changes in cerebral blood flow. Results The changes of infarction area ratio were positively correlated with the changes of cerebral blood flow in the model rats. Conclusions The changes of rat cerebral blood flow can be used to evaluate whether the cerebral ischemia model is successful or not.