MRA and Doppler ultrasound of laryngeal blood flow under hormonal and hydration modulation

OBJECTIVE: Phonation is a complex process requiring an appropriate tissue environment of the vocal folds, with laryngeal blood flow serving as one factor that contributes to tissue homeostasis. Effects of dehydration and reproductive hormone cycling to blood flow and vascular dynamics are described in the literature, but there is a gap in our understanding how these factors may influence the laryngeal blood supply directly. The present study has used a mild systemic dehydration and hormone manipulation paradigm in rats to evaluate the related impacts to the superior thyroid artery using Doppler ultrasound and time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography. RESULTS: This study provides evidence that hormone status can modify the manifestation of mild systemic dehydration as reflected in bodyweight loss. The imaging methods employed did not reliably identify perturbations to blood flow related to either hydration or hormone status, which we attribute to their practical resolution with respect to the superior thyroid artery and subtlety of the hypothesized effects.