Estimating brain microvascular blood flows from partial two-photon microscopy data by computation with a circuit model

The cortical microvasculature plays a key role in cortical tissue health by transporting important molecules via blood. Disruptions to blood flow in the microvasculature due to events such as stroke can thus induce damage to the cortex. Recent developments in two-photon microscopy have enabled in vivo imaging of anesthetized rat cortex in three dimensions. The microscopy data provide information about the geometry of the cortical microvasculature, length and diameter of the vessels in the imaged microvasculature network, and blood flow through a subset of those vessels. We demonstrate a model that achieves three goals. First, given a network of interconnected vessels and flow measurements on a subset of those vessels, we can estimate the flows in the remaining vessels. Second, we can determine which and how many vessels should have blood flow measurements taken to provide sufficient information to predict the unmeasured flows. Finally, the model enables us to predict effects of blockages in one or more vessels, indicating which vessels are most important to overall flow in the network.