Abstract

OBJECTIVE To develop an in vivo model for testing spatially resolved spectroscopy and quantified near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) cerebral blood flow measurements.

METHOD Multiple detector NIRS has been used to study changes in tissue oxyhaemoglobin (O₂Hb) concentration during selective internal carotid angiography. A significant reduction in O₂Hb occurred in tissue interrogated by detectors situated between 0.7 and 4.1 cm from the NIRS light source.

RESULTS The time course of O₂Hb concentration change was consistent with displacement of oxygenated blood by the radiocontrast medium from vascular beds of differing flow and NIR light attenuation. Increasing changes in O₂Hb concentration per unit photon path length—predicted to occur at greater emitter-detector separations if those changes had occurred predominantly in cerebral tissue—were found in the first four seconds after injection of radiocontrast medium. However, later changes (6-10 s) were larger and were not proportional to emitter-detector separation.

CONCLUSION The findings indicate that simple assumptions regarding the distribution of the internal carotid artery blood supply to cerebral and extracerebral tissues, the photon path length through those tissues, and their relative contributions to attenuation of NIR light may not be justified.