Monitoring cerebral blood flow during focal ischaemia and reperfusion with established techniques such as hydrogen clearance and autoradiography is difficult. Laser Doppler flowmetry is a new technique, it allows one to continuously measure blood flow in small tissue samples. The objective of this study was to compare laser Doppler flowmetry with hydrogen clearance using a new single fiber probe to obtain measurements in deep brain structures and then to show the temporal profile of cerebral blood flow during focal ischaemia and after reperfusion.

First, the single fiber laser Doppler method was compared with the hydrogen clearance method in ten Wistar rats.

Second, focal cerebral ischaemia was induced in fifteen Wistar rats using a model of middle cerebral artery occlusion based on the intravascular insertion of a nylon suture; reperfusion occurred after withdrawal of the suture. The laser Doppler probe was placed in the lateral caudatoputamen, and local cerebral blood flow was measured continuously before and during occlusion as well as after reperfusion.

The relative blood flow values obtained by the laser Doppler method and the hydrogen clearance method showed a good correlation (r=0.76) and a linear relationship. A rapid decrease in laser Doppler flowmetry to 42±16% of former baseline values was seen with occlusion of the middle cerebral artery; during occlusion cerebral blood flow remained at this level. Reperfusion resulted in a heterogeneous pattern of cerebral blood flow as laser Doppler flowmetry values ranged from 25% to 134% of baseline values.

The effects of middle cerebral artery occlusion and reperfusion on cerebral blood flow can be monitored on-line with laser Doppler flowmetry. Our findings suggest that this method, with the high spatial and temporal resolution characteristics of its new single fiber probe, allows one to continuously measure microcirculatory blood flow in deep brain structures.