Measuring blood velocity using correlative spectrally encoded flow cytometry

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Optical Imaging
• Microcirculation Research

Background:

• Spectrally encoded flow cytometry (SEFC) images microcirculation but struggles with time-dependent data axes.
• This limitation hinders the accurate quantification of vital clinical parameters from SEFC images.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a modified SEFC system capable of overcoming time-dependency for precise flow speed quantification.
• To enable effective measurement of blood parameters in small capillary vessels.

Main Methods:

• A novel SEFC system design splits the optical path into two parallel imaging lines.
• Straightforward data analysis techniques are employed to recover flow speed from multiplexed data.

Main Results:

• The enhanced SEFC system successfully measured the flow velocity of latex beads and blood cells in vitro.
• Real-time velocity measurements achieved up to 11.7 mm/s with high spatial resolution.

Conclusions:

• The dual-imaging SEFC approach effectively addresses the challenge of time-dependency in flow quantification.
• This advancement allows for accurate blood parameter measurement in microcirculation and can be integrated into existing SEFC systems.