In vivo evaluation of cerebral venous sinus morphology using pulsed-laser-diode-based desktop photoacoustic tomography system

Abstract

Assessment of morphological changes in cerebral venous sinus of small animal models is important to gain insights of various disease conditions such as intracranial hypotension, Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, subdural hematoma etc. Photoacoustic Tomography (PAT), a fast-growing non-invasive hybrid imaging modality which combines high optical contrast and resolution in deep tissue imaging offers a novel, rapid and cost-effective way to analyze the morphological changes of venous sinus in comparison with the conventional imaging modalities. In this study, we examined the morphological changes of sagittal sinus in the rat brain due to intracranial pressure changes induced by Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) extraction using low cost pulsed laser diode (PLD) based desktop (PAT) system. Our results indicate that the desktop PLD-PAT system can be employed to evaluate the changes in the cerebral venous sinus in preclinical models. We observed a ∼30% average increase in the area of sagittal venous sinus from the baseline, when the CSF is extracted.