Extending fluorescent microsphere methods for regional organ blood flow to 13 simultaneous colors

Seven fluorescent microsphere colors can be used in a single experiment to estimate regional blood flow without correcting for spillover of emitted fluorescence. To extend the method to 13 colors, we compared the accuracy of three methods for spillover correction. Fixed wavelength intensities were corrected by matrix inversion, and synchronous scan spectra were corrected by least squares fit of an overdetermined system of linear equations and by least squares fit of a sum of Gaussian and Lorentzian functions. Correction methods were validated in pigs and sheep by simultaneous injections of radioactive microspheres and fluorescent microspheres of 7, 10, and 13 different colors. We induced extreme changes in flow to create regions with low fluorescent signals bound on either side by high fluorescent signals. Blood flow was determined by radioactivity and by fluorescence using both fixed excitation and emission wavelength pairs and synchronous scanning and then corrected for spillover. Correlation between fluorescent intensity and radioactivity were excellent for all three correction methods [R2 = 0.98 +/- 0.02 (mean +/- SD)]. Low-flow regions requiring large spillover correction had systematic errors for some color combinations in all methods. We conclude that for 13 fluorescent colors spillover error can be minimized so that all three correction methods provide accurate estimates of regional blood flow.