Dear Sir/Ma'am
I have Blood flowmeter instrument from ADinstrument which works on the principle of Laser Doppler shifting. We have 2 types of electrodes - Surface and Needle.
Can we measure Cerebral blood flow by placing the electrodes on the rat's cranium ?
Blood flow measurements using Laser Doppler can be made by placing the optical fibre probe on the cranium. You do have to open the skin though and the electrode has to be stably attached to the cranium. With the anesthetized animal lying face down:
1. shave the hair off the top of the head
2. apply a local anesthetic and an antiseptic agent (like hibitane) to the skull
3. make a incision in the skin down the midline and pul back a little by making side snips haflway down the incision.
4. clean the connecting tissue off the bone underneath well
5. thin the skull bone a little bit
6. then use a cyanoacrylate glue around the optical fibre to attach it at a perpendicular angle onto the cranium. The attachment has to be solid or you will get artefact from the movement of the probe itself instead of blood flow.
7. Connect optical fibre to the Doppler flowmeter. You should be able to get measurements of cerebral blood flow now.
Where you place the probe depends on where you want to measure, of course. For e.g., to measure flow in the territory of the middle cerebral artery, the probe should be placed approximately 4mm lateral and 1.5mm caudal from bregma.
Good luck!
Just to follow up on Anusha's answer I would suggest the OxyFlo system to make these measurements. It has been reliably used to measure blood flow in many tissues including the brain. Hope this helps.
https://www.scintica.com/products/oxford-optronix/blood-flow-monitors/
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