Division of Computer Assisted Medical Interventions, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2019 Jun 17;9(1):8661. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-44935-4.
Spreading depolarization (SD) is a self-propagating wave of near-complete neuronal depolarization that is abundant in a wide range of neurological conditions, including stroke. SD was only recently documented in humans and is now considered a therapeutic target for brain injury, but the mechanisms related to SD in complex brains are not well understood. While there are numerous approaches to interventional imaging of SD on the exposed brain surface, measuring SD deep in brain is so far only possible with low spatiotemporal resolution and poor contrast. Here, we show that photoacoustic imaging enables the study of SD and its hemodynamics deep in the gyrencephalic brain with high spatiotemporal resolution. As rapid neuronal depolarization causes tissue hypoxia, we achieve this by continuously estimating blood oxygenation with an intraoperative hybrid photoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging system. Due to its high resolution, promising imaging depth and high contrast, this novel approach to SD imaging can yield new insights into SD and thereby lead to advances in stroke, and brain injury research.
去极化扩散（SD）是一种广泛存在于多种神经疾病（包括中风）中的广泛神经元去极化的自传播波。SD 最近才在人类中被记录下来，现在被认为是脑损伤的治疗靶点，但复杂大脑中与 SD 相关的机制尚不清楚。虽然在暴露的大脑表面有许多针对 SD 的介入性成像方法，但到目前为止，只有通过低时空分辨率和低对比度才能在大脑深处测量 SD。在这里，我们展示了光声成像是如何利用术中混合光声和超声成像系统，以高时空分辨率研究大脑回状结构深处的 SD 及其血液动力学的。由于快速的神经元去极化会导致组织缺氧，我们通过持续地用术中混合光声和超声成像系统来估计血氧。由于其高分辨率、有前景的成像深度和高对比度，这种新的 SD 成像方法可以为 SD 提供新的见解，从而推动中风和脑损伤研究的进展。
