RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Spatially resolved optical monitoring of spinal cord blood flow with a minimally invasive, multi-level epidural probe JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2020.10.06.326900 DO 10.1101/2020.10.06.326900 A1 David R. Busch A1 Wei Lin A1 Chia Chieh Goh A1 Feng Gao A1 Nicholas Larson A1 Joseph Wahl A1 Thomas V. Bilfinger A1 Arjun G. Yodh A1 Thomas F. Floyd YR 2020 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/07/2020.10.06.326900.abstract AB Spinal cord ischemia leads to iatrogenic injury in multiple surgical fields, and the ability to immediately identify onset and anatomic origin of ischemia is critical to its management. Current clinical monitoring, however, does not directly measure spinal cord blood flow, resulting in poor sensitivity/specificity, delayed alerts, and delayed intervention. We have developed an epidural device employing diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) to monitor spinal cord ischemia continuously at multiple positions. We investigate the ability of this device to localize spinal cord ischemia in a porcine model and validate DCS versus Laser Doppler Flowmetry (LDF).Specifically, we demonstrate continuous (>0.1Hz) spatially resolved (3 locations) monitoring of spinal cord blood flow in a purely ischemic model with an epidural DCS probe. Changes in blood flow measured by DCS and LDF were highly correlated (r=0.83). Spinal cord blood flow measured by DCS caudal to aortic occlusion decreased 62%, with a sensitivity of 0.87 and specificity of 0.91 for detection of a 25% decrease in flow. This technology may enable early identification and critically important localization of spinal cord ischemia.Competing Interest StatementThis study was funded by the United States National Institutes of Health (U01-NS095761, secondary support from R01-NS060653). Several authors have patents issued US20140343384 (AGY, TFF), US8,082,015 (AGY), US6,076,010 (AGY), US10,342,488 (AGY, DRB) or pending PCT/US2015/017286 (AGY, DRB) relative to DCS technologies. None of these patents are licensed or generate royalties. Dr. Floyd is the CEO and President of, and Drs. Floyd, Lin, and Busch hold equity interest in, NFOSYS, Inc. This company may license the technology used in this study. There is currently no license and no sales.