Quantitative assessment of reactive hyperemia using laser speckle contrast imaging at multiple wavelengths

摘要

Reactive hyperemia refers to an increase of blood flow in tissue post release of an occlusion in the local vasculature. Measuring the temporal response of reactive hyperemia, post-occlusion in patients has the potential to shed information about microvascular diseases such as systemic sclerosis and diabetes. Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) is an imaging technique capable of sensing superficial blood flow in tissue which can be used to quantitatively assess reactive hyperemia. Here, we employ LSCI using coherent sources in the blue, green and red wavelengths to evaluate reactive hyperemia in healthy human volunteers. Blood flow in the forearms of subjects were measured using LSCI to assess the time-course of reactive hyperemia that was triggered by a pressure cuff applied to the biceps of the subjects. Raw speckle images were acquired and processed to yield blood-flow parameters from a region of interest before, during and after application of occlusion. Reactive hyperemia was quantified via two measures - (1) by calculating the difference between the peak LSCI flow during the hyperemia and baseline flow, and (2) by measuring the amount of time that elapsed between the release of the occlusion and peak flow. These measurements were acquired in three healthy human participants, under the three laser wavelengths employed. The studies shed light on the utility of in vivo LSCI-based flow sensing for non-invasive assessment of reactive hyperemia responses and how they varied with the choice source wavelength influences the measured parameters.