Intraoperative monitoring CBF dynamics during MCAO by laser speckle contrast imaging

Abstract

The intraluminal filament Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion (MCAO) model is widely used to study animal models of cerebral ischemia. Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging (LSCI) provides an approach to monitor changes in cortical Cerebral Blood Flow (CBF) in mice through intact skull. However, the MCAO surgery requires a supine position of animals during preparation, where the conventional LSCI systems cannot achieve to provide a real-time high spatio-temporal resolution CBF information. Herein, we implemented an optimized method to uninterruptedly measure the relative CBF during surgical procedures by designing an inverted LSCI (i-LSCI). This approach achieves a real-time high spatio-temporal resolution CBF information during the MCAO surgery, enabling a real-time monitoring of cerebral collateral circulation and assessment of the stability of the ischemic site immediately after MCAO. Moreover, this optimization allows for a detection of Cortical Spreading Depolarization (CSD) in ischemic cortex immediately after MCAO.