High-density speckle contrast optical tomography (SCOT) for three dimensional tomographic imaging of the small animal brain

•High-density speckle contrast optical tomography for in vivo imaging in small animals.•Three-dimensional reconstruction of reduced cerebral blood flow in mice with stroke.•Reconstructed volume of blood flow compared to anatomical magnetic resonance image.

High-density speckle contrast optical tomography (SCOT) utilizing tens of thousands of source-detector pairs, was developed for in vivo imaging of blood flow in small animals. The reduction in cerebral blood flow (CBF) due to local ischemic stroke in a mouse brain was transcanially imaged and reconstructed in three dimensions. The reconstructed volume was then compared with corresponding magnetic resonance images demonstrating that the volume of reduced CBF agrees with the infarct zone at twenty-four hours.