Measurement of blood flow in rat eyes by hydrogen clearance

Intraocular measurements of blood flow have been made in the rat eye using hydrogen-clearance polarography. Hydrogen was delivered by a bolus injection of hydrogen-saturated saline via a cannula in the lingual artery of the anesthetized rat. An intraocularly placed hydrogen-sensitive microelectrode monitored the arrival and clearance of hydrogen preretinally adjacent to retinal arteries, veins, and intervascular areas. The effect of stepwise penetration through the retina and into the choroid was also determined, and a map of hydrogen distribution in the retina during hydrogen delivery and clearance was produced. Intraocular measurements, which have the advantage that the electrode location can be clearly visualized, together with computer control of the bolus injection and data collection, have allowed highly repeatable measurements of local blood flow to be made. The mean blood flow in retinal tissue was 373 +/- 51 ml.min-1.100 g-1 (values are means +/- SD, n = 32). The correlation between the nature of the hydrogen clearance curve and the location of the electrode helps explain data from other studies in which the position of the electrode with respect to the vasculature was unknown.