Spreading depression (SD) has been found involved in focal cerebral ischemia which may result in severe or lethal neurological deficits. Electrical recording of SD has been used for acute and long term monitoring of focal cerebral ischemia but with an inherently low resolution. Here, we presented optical intrinsic signal imaging (OISI) to characterize the spontaneous SD waves following permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in rats with high spatial resolution. During each SD episode, the measured optical reflectance varied regionally: decreased (-12.5±2.8%) in the area near the midline, remained flat (3.1±2.5%) in the lateral region, and increased (12.1±3.6%) in the intermediate cortex. The three types of changes yielded identifications for three biological relevant zones: nonischemic cortex, penumbra and infarct core. Accompanying recurrent SD waves, the suggested penumbral area reduced by about 6.4±2.5% of the whole imaged area per SD event, indicating a growth of the infracted area. Staining with 2% 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) 4 h post-occlusion proved the infarct cortex to be consistent with the lateral region where the final SD wave did not invade (r=0.86±0.10). The results suggest that OISI based on SD can effectively used to distinguish nonischemic cortex, penumbra and infarct core in the ischemic hemisphere and monitor the development of ischemia with high spatial resolution.

Date Published: 7 February 2007
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 6436, Complex Dynamics and Fluctuations in Biomedical Photonics IV, 64360A (7 February 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.701636

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6436:
Complex Dynamics and Fluctuations in Biomedical Photonics IV
Valery V. Tuchin, Editor(s)