Time-domain diffuse correlation spectroscopy (TD-DCS) for noninvasive, depth-dependent blood flow quantification in...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Physiological Monitoring
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Accurate monitoring of human tissue hemodynamics is vital for understanding cellular metabolism and disease states.
• Time-domain diffuse correlation spectroscopy (TD-DCS) offers noninvasive blood flow measurement by analyzing light scattering patterns.
• Existing TD-DCS methods face challenges in resolving depth-specific blood flow due to tissue polydispersity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel approach for accurate time-of-flight (TOF) resolved blood flow quantification in human tissues.
• To address the limitations of polydispersity in achieving depth-resolved blood flow measurements with TD-DCS.
• To demonstrate the capability of the new method in distinguishing superficial and deep blood flow in vivo.

Main Methods:

• Development of a novel algorithm to accurately quantify TOF-resolved blood flow in polydisperse human tissues.
• In vivo application of the method to monitor blood flow index in the human forearm during cuff occlusion.
• In vivo testing on the human forehead with controllable pressure to differentiate superficial and deep blood flow.

Main Results:

• The novel approach accurately quantifies TOF-resolved blood flow in human tissues.
• Depth-dependent reactive hyperemia was detected in the human forearm during cuff occlusion.
• The method successfully separated superficial from deep blood flow in the human forehead.

Conclusions:

• The developed method provides accurate depth-resolved blood flow measurements in human tissues.
• This technique is valuable for monitoring hemodynamic responses, such as reactive hyperemia.
• The approach holds significant potential for neuroimaging sensing applications requiring short interoptode separations.