Arteriolo-arteriolar anastomosis’s role in regulating blood perfusion through penetrating arterioles during stroke is yet to be discovered. We apply ultra-high sensitive optical microangiography (UHS-OMAG) and Doppler optical microangiography (DOMAG) techniques to evaluate vessel diameter and red blood cell velocity changes in large number of pial and penetrating arterioles in relation with arteriolo-arteriolar anastomosis (AAA) during and after focal stroke. Thanks to the high sensitivity of UHS-OMAG, we were able to image pial microvasculature up to capillary level through a cranial window (9 mm₂), and DOMAG provided clear image of penetrating arterioles up to 500μm depth. Results showed that penetrating arterioles close to a strong AAA connection dilate whereas penetrating arterioles constrict significantly in weaker AAA regions. These results suggest that AAA plays a major role in active regulation of the pial arterioles, and weaker AAA connections lead to poor blood perfusion to penumbra through penetrating arterioles.

Date Published: 2 March 2015
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 9312, Optical Coherence Tomography and Coherence Domain Optical Methods in Biomedicine XIX, 93121A (2 March 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2082311

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9312:
Optical Coherence Tomography and Coherence Domain Optical Methods in Biomedicine XIX
James G. Fujimoto; Joseph A. Izatt; Valery V. Tuchin, Editor(s)