Open AccessA Wearable Fiberless Optical Sensor for Continuous Monitoring of Cerebral Blood Flow in Mice
Author(s) -
Chong Huang,
Yutong Gu,
Jing Chen,
Ahmed A. Bahrani,
Elie G. Abu Jawdeh,
Henrietta S. Bada,
Kathryn E. Saatman,
Guoqiang Yu,
Lei Chen
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
ieee journal of selected topics in quantum electronics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.131
H-Index - 159
eISSN - 1558-4542
pISSN - 1077-260X
DOI - 10.1109/jstqe.2018.2854597
Subject(s) - wearable computer , cerebral blood flow , blood flow , computer science , optoelectronics , materials science , embedded system , medicine , cardiology
Continuous and longitudinal monitoring of cerebral blood flow (CBF) in animal models provides information for studying the mechanisms and interventions of various cerebral diseases. Since anesthesia may affect brain hemodynamics, researchers have been seeking wearable devices for use in conscious animals. We present a wearable diffuse speckle contrast flowmeter (DSCF) probe for monitoring CBF variations in mice. The DSCF probe consists of a small low-power near-infrared laser diode as a point source and an ultra-small low-power CMOS camera as a 2D detector array, which can be affixed on a mouse head. The movement of red blood cells in brain cortex (i.e., CBF) produces spatial fluctuations of laser speckles, which are captured by the camera. The DSCF system was calibrated using tissue phantoms and validated in a human forearm and mouse brains for continuous monitoring of blood flow increases and decreases against the established technologies. Significant correlations were observed among these measurements (R 2 ≥ 0.80, p < 10 -5 ). This small fiberless probe has the potential to be worn by a freely moving conscious mouse. Moreover, the flexible source-detector configuration allows for varied probing depths up to ~8 mm, which is sufficient for transcranially detecting CBF in the cortices of rodents and newborn infants.