Multispectral Imaging for Vein Localization and Contrast Enhancement.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging
• Ophthalmology

Background:

• Intravenous (IV) catheterization failure rates reach 26% due to poor vein visibility, influenced by skin tone and body fat.
• Existing vein visualization tools like ultrasound and transillumination have limitations in emergencies and field of view.
• Commercial near-infrared (NIR) vein finders are effective but costly, limiting their use in low-resource settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a low-cost NIR Multispectral Imaging (MSI) method for enhanced vein visualization.
• To identify an optimal spectral range for improved vein-to-skin contrast across diverse patient demographics.
• To enhance vein visibility for all skin tones and Body Mass Index (BMI) values.

Main Methods:

• Utilized NIR Multispectral Imaging (MSI) to determine the optimal wavelength band for vein visualization.
• Developed a contrast enhancement algorithm involving Gamma correction, CLAHE, adaptive thresholding, and image fusion.
• Evaluated the method's effectiveness in increasing vein-to-skin contrast across fair, brown, and dark brown skin types with varying BMIs.

Main Results:

• Identified the optimal spectral range for vein visualization as 814-876 nm.
• The proposed contrast enhancement method significantly improved vein-to-skin contrast ratios.
• Achieved contrast increases of 0.41, 0.375, and 0.39 for fair, brown, and dark brown skin types, respectively.

Conclusions:

• The developed NIR MSI technique offers a promising low-cost solution for vein localization.
• This technology can enhance the training of medical and nursing students in IV catheterization.
• Potential application in emergency settings to improve first-attempt IV access success rates and reduce patient anxiety.