Diffuse light reflectance signals as potential indicators of loss of viability in brain tissue due to hypoxia: charge-coupled-device-based imaging and fiber-based measurement.

Brain tissue is highly vulnerable to ischemia/hypoxia, and real-time monitoring of its viability is important. By fiber-based measurements for rat brain, we previously observed a unique triphasic reflectance change (TRC) after a certain period of time after hypoxia. After TRC, rats could not be rescued, suggesting that TRC can be used as an indicator of loss of brain tissue viability. In this study, we investigated this diffuse-reflectance change due to hypoxia in three parts. First, we developed and validated a theoretical method to quantify changes in the absorption and reduced scattering coefficients involved in TRC. Second, we performed charge-coupled-device-based reflectance imaging of the rat brain during hypoxia followed by reoxygenation to examine spatiotemporal characteristics of the reflectance and its correlation with reversibility of brain tissue damage. Third, we made simultaneous imaging and fiber-based measurement of the reflectance for the rat to compare signals obtained by these two modalities. We observed a nontriphasic reflectance change by the imaging, and it was associated with brain tissue viability. We found that TRC measured by the fibers preceded the reflectance-signal change captured by the imaging. This time difference is attributable to the different observation depths in the brain with these two methods.