Periorbital Placement of a Laser Doppler Probe for Cerebral Blood Flow Monitoring Prior to Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion in Rodent Models

I investigated ischemic stroke, focusing on microglia, reperfusion injury, and sex differences in the brain. My work aims to understand how these factors affect brain injury and to develop targeted treatments for improved stroke treatments at acute and chronic timelines. Reproducibility and sample size are key challenges in stroke research.

Variability in injury size from the middle cerebral artery occlusion procedure often requires larger sample sizes for accurate statistical testing, which may be underrecognized and impact reproducibility of science in our field. Our most significant findings and contributions revolve around microglia quantifications and the intersection with ischemic stroke from an acute and chronic perspective. Using Laser Doppler flowmetry in MCAO can be challenging, especially in rats due to thicker skulls and the perception that skull thinning and specialized equipment for dorsal probe placement are needed.

These barriers may hinder LDF implementation for confirming filament placement. The protocol outlines placing the Laser Doppler probe at the skull in distal middle cerebral artery region periorbital placement to assess blood flow during MCAO in mice and rats. It offers advantages over other methods by being minimally invasive, fast, and requiring only the Laser Doppler probe.