Small separation diffuse correlation spectroscopy for measurement of cerebral blood flow in rodents

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Eashani Sathialingam, Georgia Institute of Technology; Seung Yup Lee, Georgia Institute of Technology; Bharat Sanders, Georgia Institute of Technology; Jaekeun Park, Emory University; Courtney E. McCracken, Emory University; Leah Bryan, Emory University; Erin Buckley, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2018-11-01
• Publisher: Optical Society of America: Open Access Journals
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2018 Optical Society of America.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/BOE.9.005719
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Biomedical Optics Express
• ISSN: 2156-7085
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 11
• Start Page: 5719
• End Page: 5734
• Grant/Funding Information: National Institute of Health (R21NS104801 (EMB) and R21EB023689 (EMB)); Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Junior Faculty Focused Award (EMB).
• Keywords: Biochemical Research Methods; MRI; Physical Sciences; HEMODYNAMICS; TRANSCRANIAL DOPPLER ULTRASOUND; Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; TURBID MEDIA; SPREADING DEPRESSION; PERFUSION; RAT-BRAIN; Optics; Science & Technology; Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging; CORRELATION TOMOGRAPHY; RECOVERY FAIR TECHNIQUE; OPTICAL MEASUREMENT
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Radiology; Biology, Neuroscience; Chemistry, Biochemistry

Abstract

Diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) has shown promise as a means to non-invasively measure cerebral blood flow in small animal models. Here, we characterize the validity of DCS at small source-detector reflectance separations needed for small animal measurements. Through Monte Carlo simulations and liquid phantom experiments, we show that DCS error increases as separation decreases, although error remains below 12% for separations > 0.2 cm. In mice, DCS measures of cerebral blood flow have excellent intra-user repeatability and strongly correlate with MRI measures of blood flow (R = 0.74, p<0.01). These results are generalizable to other DCS applications wherein short-separation reflectance geometries are desired.