A novel microfluidic model to mimic the turbid nature and microvasculature of cutaneous tissue for optical imaging experiments

摘要

To provide clinically relevant insights into the device performance of an optical imaging approach to reconstruct the superficial cutaneous micro-circulation (skin angiography), a phantom device with turbid matrix and perfusable micro-vessels is essential. In this work, we describe a novel microfluidic-based device to mimic the micro-vessels and the turbid nature of the epidermis and dermis. This phantom device contains a hollow assay with a diameter of the channels of 50 μm. The hollow assay includes the geometry of the inlet, the river-like assay, and the outlet, which can be perfused by e.g. meta-hemoglobin solution. This imitates the superficial micro-circulation in the skin. The absorption coefficient jj.a and the reduced scattering coefficient μ_s~' are adjusted to match those of skin. As an application case, we attempt to reconstruct a 2-D velocity field of the hemoglobin flow in the scattering microfluidic device via the Doppler-mode of an OCT.