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Updated: Mar 22, 2026
Spatial Temporal Analysis of Fieldwise Flow in Microvasculature
Published on: November 18, 2019
Dynamic Flow Velocity Mapping from Fluorescent Dye Transit Times in the Brain Surface Microcirculation of
Ryo Hoshikawa1, Hiroshi Kawaguchi2, Hiroyuki Takuwa3
1Faculty of Informatics and Engineering, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan.
Objective:
This study aimed to develop a new method for mapping blood flow velocity based on the spatial evolution of fluorescent dye transit times captured with CLSFM in the cerebral microcirculation of anesthetized rodents.
Methods:
The animals were anesthetized with isoflurane, and a small amount of fluorescent dye was intravenously injected to label blood plasma. The CLSFM was conducted through a closed cranial window to capture propagation of the dye in the cortical vessels. The transit time of the dye over a certain distance in a single vessel was determined with automated image analyses, and average flow velocity was mapped in each vessel.
Results:
The average flow velocity measured in the rat pial artery and vein was 4.4 ± 1.2 and 2.4 ± 0.5 mm/sec, respectively. A similar range of flow velocity to those of the rats was observed in the mice; 4.9 ± 1.4 and 2.0 ± 0.9 mm/sec, respectively, although the vessel diameter in the mice was about half of that in the rats.
Conclusions:
Flow velocity in the cerebral microcirculation can be mapped based on fluorescent dye transit time measurements with conventional CLSFM in experimental animals.
