On the equivalence and differencesbetween laser Doppler flowmetry andlaser speckle contrast analysis

摘要

Laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) and laser speckle contrast analysis (LASCA) both utilize the spatiotemporalproperties of laser speckle patterns to assess microcirculatory blood flow in tissue. Although the techniquesanalyze the speckle pattern differently, there is a close relationship between them. We present atheoretical overview describing how the LDF power spectrum and the LASCA contrast can be calculatedfrom each other, and how both these can be calculated from an optical Doppler spectrum containing variousdegrees of Doppler shifted light. The theoretical relationships are further demonstrated using time-resolvedspeckle simulations. A wide range of Monte Carlo simulated tissue models is then used to show how perfusionestimates for LDF and LASCA are affected by changes in blood concentration and speed distribution, as well asby geometrical and optical properties. We conclude that perfusion estimates from conventional single exposuretime LASCA are in general more sensitive to changes in optical and geometrical properties and are less accuratein the prediction of real perfusion changes, especially speed changes. Since there is a theoretical one-to-onerelationship between Doppler power spectrum and contrast, one can conclude that those drawbacks with theLASCA technique can be overcome using a multiple exposure time setup.