Monitoring Acute Stroke in Mouse Model Using Laser Speckle Imaging-Guided Visible-Light Optical Coherence Tomography

OBJECTIVE: Monitoring hemodynamic and vascular changes in the acute stages of mouse stroke models is invaluable in studying ischemic stroke pathophysiology. However, there lacks a tool to simultaneously and dynamically investigate these changes. METHODS: We integrated laser speckle imaging (LSI) and visible-light optical coherence tomography (Vis-OCT) to reveal dynamic vascular responses in acute stages in the distal middle cerebral artery occlusion (dMCAO) model in rodents. LSI provides full-field, real-time imaging to guide Vis-OCT imaging and monitor the dynamic cerebral blood flow (CBF). Vis-OCT offers depth-resolved angiography and oxygen saturation (sO2) measurements. RESULTS: Our results showed detailed CBF and vasculature changes before, during, and after dMCAO. After dMCAO, we observed insignificant sO2 variation in arteries and arterioles and location-dependent sO2 drop in veins and venules. We observed that higher branch-order veins had larger drops in sO2 at the reperfusion stage after dMCAO. CONCLUSION: This work suggests that integrated LSI and Vis-OCT is a promising tool for investigating ischemic stroke in mouse models. SIGNIFICANCE: For the first time, LSI and Vis-OCT are integrated to investigate ischemic strokes in rodent models.