Low cost laser speckle imaging system for blood flow assessment

Abstract

This paper aims to demonstrate the feasibility of using a low cost laser speckle imaging built for the detection of changes of tissue blood flow with different experimental conditions. Images of anterior portion of the wrist of four healthy adult volunteers illuminated by a laser source of wavelength 650 nm were collected via a monochromatic charge-coupled device (CCD) imager. The mean and standard deviation (SD) of blood flow perfusion was predicted as 3.92 ± 1.47 and 2.90 ± 1.39, respectively, for measurements at rest condition and during blood flow occlusion. This work showed the ability of the developed system to detect changes in blood flow perfusion with differences in the experimental conditions. However, further works are required to further confirm the suitability of the system before it is used for different clinical applications such as monitoring of blood flow during diabetic foot ulcers healing following standard medical treatment.