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 (sO
₂
) measurements. Results: Our results showed detailed CBF and vasculature changes before, during, and after dMCAO. After dMCAO, we observed insignificant sO
₂
variation in arteries and arterioles and location-dependent sO
₂
drop in veins and venules. We observed that higher branch-order veins had larger drops in sO
₂
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.