Monitoring optical and physiologic properties of brain in response to anesthetic drugs using hybrid optical imaging system

Optical imaging setup based on the combination of spatially modulated visible light illumination and laser speckle technique is utilized to evaluate the effect of anesthetic drugs on several brain parameters including absorption, scattering, oxygen saturation, cerebral blood flow and more. Two anesthetic drugs ketamine-xylazine (KX) and thiopental were investigated. During experiments, a series of visible sinusoidal patterns with different spatial frequencies are projected onto a mouse brain and diffusely reflected light is recorded by a camera. Then, illumination is blocked, and a laser light shines on the brain while the diffusely reflected light is recorded by the same camera. In this manner, visible and laser speckle images are captured and processed to reconstruct the cerebral tissue features. Variations in optical properties, levels of tissue chromophore content, and in blood flow were observed.