In Vivo Network-Level Cerebrovascular Mapping Reveals the Impact of Flow Topology on Capillary Stalls After Stroke
Cerebral microvasculature is essential for brain function, but how flow and large-scale connectivity contribute to its resilience or failure remains poorly understood. To address this, we developed OMNIMap, a framework for mesoscale in vivo mapping of functional microvascular networks, capturing flow dynamics and connectivity across thousands of capillaries. OMNIMap integrates extended-focus optical coherence microscopy and learning-based segmentation with global vessel-graph optimization to resolve artery-vein classification and branching order, linking capillary flow and stalls to broader network context. Applied to over 40,000 capillaries in the mouse cortex before and after ischemic stroke, we observe heterogeneous vulnerability patterns: while most capillaries stall or reduce flow after arterial occlusion, some experience accelerated flow. Further analysis revealed that stall-prone flow topology subtypes were less prevalent than their robust counterparts. Notably, the overall distribution of these subtypes remains largely preserved after stroke, revealing a previously unrecognized, system-level organizing principle that alleviates the impact of individual capillary stalls to maintain network-level perfusion.