title: Arterial pulsations are present in one third of the human cranial vascular volume penetrated by near infrared light.
abstract: The percentage of cranial vascular volume that undergoes arterial pulsations is estimated by 18 paired measurements in nine healthy volunteers using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS, 10 Hz sampling frequency, 769 nm). The NIR absorption is decomposed in pulsatile and non-pulsatile components by digital filtering. The time course of absorption changes of these components after sudden intravenous injection of indocyanine-green (ICG) is used to estimate the arterial fraction of vascular volume (f(art)). Approximately 28% of the vascular volume within the optical field of the NIR spectroscope was arterial. The range of values was 6-43%. Variance of f(art) was 4.8 times higher between subjects than within subjects, indicating that the variability observed is not due to imprecise estimation but to optode position and subject.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stingele
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Benedicht P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Steiner
authors.forename: Karoline
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stingele
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hacke
mesh_terms: D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply*; D006801:Humans; D007208:Indocyanine Green / Q000008:administration & dosage; D012016:Reference Values; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D007208:Indocyanine Green