Application of novel dynamic optical imaging for evaluation of peripheral tissue perfusion

Measurement of functional tissue perfusion should be needed for preventive measures, early diagnosis, and adequate treatment especially in the patients with peripheral vascular diseases (PVD). Significant attention has also been given to in vivo near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging because of deep tissue penetration due to low absorbance and scattering. In this study, a new method, indocyanine green (ICG) perfusion imaging to evaluate the peripheral tissue perfusion that employs the intravenous injection of ICG dye, planar imaging with a CCD digital imaging system, and analysis of spatiotemporal dynamics have been applied to diagnose perfusion rate of human lower extremities from a normal and a PVD case. The feet tissue perfusions of the PVD patient were measured as 25% to 50% compared with those of normal feet tissue. The diagnostic result indicates that ICG perfusion imaging method is sensitive enough to diagnose PVD and take noninvasive monitoring treatment effects of peripheral vascular diseases in clinical setting.