Classification of tissue pathological state using optical multiparametric monitoring approach

In order to diagnose the development of pathophysiological events in the brain, the evaluation of multiparametric data in real time is highly important. The current work presents a new approach of using cluster analysis for the evaluation of relationship between: mitochondrial NADH, tissue blood flow and hemoglobin oxygenation under various pathophysiological conditions. The Time-Sharing Fluorometer Reflectometer (TSFR) was used for monitoring of mitochondrial NADH, oxyhemoglobin (HbO ₂), and microcirculatory blood flow simultaneously at the same location from the rat or gerbils cortex. This allows a more accurate assessment of brain functions in real time and a better understanding of the relationship between tissue oxygen supply and demand. Moreover, in some pathophysiological cases, monitoring of only one or two parameters in the cerebral cortex may be misleading. The classification was based on the data collected in experiments where different pathophysiological conditions, such as anoxia, ischemia, and SD were used. These three parameters were plotted in three dimensions. The clustering approach results showed similar patterns in each type of treatment. The distribution of data points in space was used to efine the spatial behavior of each treatment in order to produce an index for identifying different reatments. In conclusion, our present study offers a new approach of data analysis that can serve as a reliable tool for tissue pathophysiology.