A study on the identification of types of cerebral edema by using multi-parametric imaging system

Cerebral edema is a potentially fatal disorder and divided into several types. The accurately identifying the type of cerebral edema is vital for the precise treatment. Previous studies have been devoted the multi-model parameters to access the feature cerebral edema. However, few research focused on the models to distinguish the types of cerebral edema. Here, a multi-parameter joint imaging system was developed, which combined laser speckle contrast imaging system (LSCI) and intrinsic optical signals imaging system (IOS). Several parameters such as relative cerebral blood flow (rCBF), concentration changes of oxy-hemoglobin (HbO), deoxy-hemoglobin (HbR), and blood oxygen saturation (sO2) were recorded at the same region of interest (ROI). Vasogenic and cytotoxic cerebral edema models were induced by phenylephrine hydrochloride and vasopressin, respectively. The mice were randomly assigned to 2 groups and 10 individuals in each group. After drug injection, the parameters were collected every 20 minutes within 2 h in vivo. The rCBF in both groups increased gradually within 2 hours throughout the whole process, but the rCBF in the vasogenic group grew substantially faster than it in the cytotoxic group within the first 80 minutes. In the vasogenic group, the concentration changes of HbO and HbR were more pronounced. The data was analyzed by the t-test of an independent sample, and there were significant differences between the parameters of the two types of cerebral edema. It has potential for achieving a classification of cerebral edema.