Laser Doppler flowmetry signals to quantify effects of isoflurane on the peripheral cardiovascular system of healthy rats

The optical Doppler effect resulting from interactions between laser light photons and red blood cells of the microcirculation is used to characterize the influence of isoflurane, an halogenated volatile anesthetic, on the peripheral cardiovascular system. After having recorded laser Doppler flowmetry blood perfusion signals on isoflurane-induced anesthetized healthy rats, wavelet analyses show a significant decrease of the myogenic and neurogenic activities when isoflurane dose increases from 1.5% to 3%. Moreover, the approximate entropy shows a weak decrease of signal irregularity when dose of isoflurane increases. These findings demonstrate the usefulness of the optical Doppler effect in physiological and pharmacological applications. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.