Evaluation of laser speckle contrast imaging as an intrinsic method to monitor blood brain barrier integrity.

The integrity of the blood brain barrier (BBB) can contribute to the development of many brain disorders. We evaluate laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) as an intrinsic modality for monitoring BBB disruptions through simultaneous fluorescence and LSCI with vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). We demonstrated that drug-induced BBB opening was associated with a relative change of the arterial and venous blood velocities.

Rapid multiexposure in vivo brain imaging system using vertical cavity surface emitting lasers as a light source.

We demonstrate an imaging technique implementing vertical cavity lasers with extremely low transient times for a greatly simplified realization of a multiexposure laser speckle contrast imaging system. Data from multiexposure laser speckle imaging was observed to more closely agree with absolute velocity measurements using time of flight technique, when compared to long-exposure laser speckle imaging. Furthermore, additional depth information of the vasculature morphology was inferred by accounting for the change in the static scattering from tissue above vessels with respect to the total scattering from blood flow and tissue.