title: Blood flow measurement system for fetoscopic laser photocoagulation of chorionic plate anastomosing vessels (FLPC).
abstract: Fetoscopic laser photocoagulation of chorionic plate anastomosing vessels (FLPC) applies to the treatment of previable fetuses with severe twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). The ultimate goal of FLPC is selective blood flow interruption of anastomotic communicating vessels on the placenta fetoscopically. However, there has not been an established method to confirm that the blood flow is blocked, thus, it depends on the operator's experience or intuition to evaluate whether the FLPC was performed successfully or not. For this issue, we have developed a composite-type optical fiberscope (2.2 mm in diameter), which has centrally-located cautery laser fiber and surrounding located fiberglasses for viewing. This fiberscope enables transmission of 50 W Yb fiber laser which can be focused to 10 mm focal length using two lenses on the fiberscope tip. In this study, we combined the fiberscope and a laser blood-flow meter, and irradiated cautery laser to porcine mesenteric vein with measuring blood flow at the same time. From the experimental results, we could quantitatively measure the blood flow before and after laser irradiation, and confirm the blood flow blocking with our system.
authors.affiliation: Akita University, Akita City, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Seki
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oka
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Naganawa
authors.forename: Hiromasa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.forename: Keri
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chiba
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005330:Fetofetal Transfusion / Q000601:surgery*; D020669:Fetoscopes; D005332:Fetoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D045268:Flowmeters; D006801:Humans; D017075:Laser Coagulation / Q000379:methods*; D007834:Lasers; D008642:Mesenteric Veins / Q000601:surgery; D010920:Placenta / Q000098:blood supply / Q000601:surgery; D011247:Pregnancy; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D012212:Rheology; D013552:Swine