Linear response range characterization and in vivo application of laser speckle imaging of blood flow dynamics

Noninvasive blood flow imaging can provide critical information on the state of biological tissue and the efficacy of approaches to treat disease. With laser speckle imaging (LSI), relative changes in blood flow are typically reported, with the assumption that the measured values are on a linear scale. A linear relationship between the measured and actual flow rate values has been suggested. The actual flow rate range, over which this linear relationship is valid, is unknown. Herein we report the linear response range and velocity dynamic range (VDR) of our LSI instrument at two relevant camera integration times. For integration times of 1 and 10 ms, the best case VDR was 80 and 60 dB, respectively, and the worst case VDR was 20 and 50 dB. The best case VDR values were similar to those reported in the literature for optical Doppler tomography. We also demonstrate the potential of LSI for monitoring blood flow dynamics in the rodent dorsal skinfold chamber model. These findings imply that LSI can provide accurate wide-field maps of microvascular blood flow rate dynamics and highlight heterogeneities in flow response to the application of exogenous agents.