Quantitative laser speckle flowmetry of the in vivo microcirculation using sidestream dark field microscopy
Annemarie Nadort1, Rutger G Woolthuis, Ton G van Leeuwen
1Department of Biomedical Engineering and Physics, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 22700, 1100 DE Amsterdam, The Netherlands ; MQ Biofocus Research Centre, Macquarie University, NSW, Sydney 2109, Australia.
Abstract:
We present integrated Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging (LSCI) and Sidestream Dark Field (SDF) flowmetry to provide real-time, non-invasive and quantitative measurements of speckle decorrelation times related to microcirculatory flow. Using a multi exposure acquisition scheme, precise speckle decorrelation times were obtained. Applying SDF-LSCI in vitro and in vivo allows direct comparison between speckle contrast decorrelation and flow velocities, while imaging the phantom and microcirculation architecture. This resulted in a novel analysis approach that distinguishes decorrelation due to flow from other additive decorrelation sources.
