Characterization of cerebral blood flow dynamics with multiscale entropy

Abstract

Based on the laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) and the multiscale entropy (MSE), we study in this work the blood flow dynamics at the levels of cerebral veins and the surrounding network of microcerebral vessels. We discuss how the phenylephrine-related acute peripheral hypertension is reflected in the cerebral circulation and show that the observed changes are scale-dependent, and they are significantly more pronounced in microcerebral vessels, while the macrocerebral dynamics does not demonstrate authentic inter-group distinctions. We also consider the permeability of blood–brain barrier (BBB) and study its opening caused by sound exposure. We show that alterations associated with the BBB opening can be revealed by the analysis of blood flow at the level of macrocerebral vessels.

Keywords

• Cerebral blood flow
• laser speckle contrast imaging
• arterial pressure
• complexity