In vivo measurement of blood flow in a micro-scale stenosis model generated by laser photothermal blood coagulation.

Blood flow in a stenosed vessel is one of the most important issues, because it is closely related to the outbreak of circulatory diseases. To overcome the technological limitations encountered in the haemodynamic studies using in vitro stenosis models, the authors induced a stenosed flow model in the extraembryonic vessels of a chicken embryo. Blood was coagulated by laser irradiation to artificially form a stenosis on the designated spot in a straight blood vessel. Owing to photothermal coagulation of red blood cells (RBCs), the blood is denatured and a stable blood coagulum is induced in the vessel. The blood coagulum adheres firmly and stably on the vessel wall without any size variation. It disturbs the on-coming blood flow significantly. To investigate the haemodynamic characteristics of the blood flow in the stenosed vessel, a micro particle image velocimetry technique was employed using RBCs as tracers to measure the spatial distributions of velocity vectors, streamlines and shear rate. The present simple modelling of in vivo stenosis would be useful for investigating the basic haemodynamic mechanisms underlying circulatory vascular diseases.