Real-time photoplethysmography imaging system

Abstract

Real-time non-contact photoplethysmography imaging (PPGI) system for high-resolution blood perfusion mapping in human skin has been proposed. The PPGI system comprises of LED lamp, webcam and computer with video processing software. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the reliability of the PPGI system when measuring blood perfusion. The validation study of PPGI and laser-Doppler perfusion imager (LDPI) was performed during local warming of palm skin. Results showed that the amplitude of PPGI increases immediately after warming and well correlated with the mean LDPI amplitude (R=0.92+-0.03, p<0.0001). We found that PPGI technique has good potential for non-contact monitoring of blood perfusion changes. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.