Contactless monitoring of the blood-flow changes in upper limbs

Vasomotor reactivity, which is important to estimate neurogenic regulation of blood vessels in patients with different pathologies, is still assessed by occlusion plethysmography using sensors contacting the limbs. Recently we proposed a contactless approach for measuring blood flow changes during venous occlusion using imaging photoplethysmography [Kamshilin et al., Sci. Rep.7, 4642017]. In this work, the response of the vascular system on the occlusion was studied simultaneously by contact air-plethysmography system and remote optical system under illumination by incoherent polarized green light. A high correlation (r > 0.93) between the waveforms measured by both system was observed. Moreover, we found that the response of the optical system on the venous occlusion is uniform at the whole area of the forearm. The new optical technique is more convenient for assessment of the blood flow dynamics because it can be used for measurements in any part of the body. Method of imaging photoplethysmography is very promising for use in equipment intended for evaluation of neurogenic mechanisms of regulation of vascular blood flow.