Near Infrared Spectroscopy for Non-Invasive Assessment of Intracranial Haemoglobin Oxygenation in an in Vitro Model of the Calf Head

An in vitro model of the calf head was used to examine the ability of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to non-invasively determine oxygenation events within the calf head. The brains were removed from 16 calf skulls and replaced with oxygenated dilutions of calf blood that had the oxygen progressively decreased from PO2 > 110 mmHg to < 10 mmHg. Appropriate placement of the lighting source and sensor (optodes) was examined, as were the influences of skull thickness and overlying skin of the skull (including colour). The changes in haemaglobin oxygenation in the model calf head, as observed by NIRS, were highly correlated to PO2 changes in all 16 calf skulls examined (mean r2=0.91, range 0.71 to 0.99). There was a trend for optode positioning to achieve optimal NIRS signals over the middle of the frontal bone in a longitudinal axis and with optodes spaced 4 cm apart, but with the large variation between calf heads this was not shown to be significantly different from other sites tested. The presence of skin over the skull had a significant damping effect on the NIRS signal when compared with the bare skull (P<0.01) but it was not possible to detect a difference in this damping effect between black and white coloured skin. All but the two thickest skulls (13 and 14 mm frontal bone thickness) appeared to allow sufficiently strong NIRS signals of changes in haemoglobin oxygenation. This study showed that NIRS can be used for non-invasive study of oxygenation events within the cranial cavity of calves, and established some guidelines and limitations for its use in this species.