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Updated: Jun 25, 2026
Non-invasive Optical Measurement of Cerebral Metabolism and Hemodynamics in Infants
Published on: March 14, 2013
Changes in cerebral blood flow after acetazolamide: an experimental study comparing near-infrared spectroscopy and
H W Schytz1, T Wienecke, L T Jensen
1Danish Headache Center and Department of Neurology Glostrup Hospital, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Glostrup, Denmark. henrikschytz@dadlnet.dk
Background And Purpose:
It is important to find a reliable and bedside method, which can estimate the cerebral blood flow (CBF) of patients in clinical settings. Estimation of CBF by calculating a blood flow index (BFI) using continuous wave near-infrared spectroscopy (CW-NIRS) and indocyanine green (ICG) as an i.v. tracer has been proposed to be a feasible and promising method. To validate if the BFI method can detect relative changes in CBF we compared data with the established method (133)Xenon single photon emission computer tomography ((133)Xe-SPECT).
Methods:
Ten healthy subjects were investigated before and after a bolus of acetazolamide. NIRS data were obtained using a multi source detector separation configuration in order to assess a corrected BFI (BFI(corr)) value, which attempts to eliminate contamination of skin blood flow.
Results:
Data obtained showed no significant correlation between CBF changes measured by (133)Xe-SPECT and BFI(corr) (0.133, P = 0.732). After acetazolamide, a 49% increase in CBF was detected using the (133)Xe-SPECT method, whereas no changes in any ICG variables were observed after acetazolamide.
Conclusion:
The study shows that it is not possible to obtain reliable BFI data, which reflect changes in CBF after acetazolamide infusion, using the CW-NIRS and ICG method.
