Abstract
Laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) is a non invasive method enabling the monitoring of microvascular blood flow, a very important marker of tissue health. This article gives an overview on the concept of LDF for microvascular perfusion monitoring and imaging. It first describes the theoretical background of the technique. Then, the benefits of LDF signal processing are shown through clinical examples: use of time–frequency representations and wavelets. Afterwards, the paper introduces novel approaches of velocity components. For that purpose, a work providing the determination of the velocities relative contribution in physiologically relevant units (mm/s) is presented. Imaging perfusion is also reviewed through methods based on laser speckle. The most prominent disadvantage of the latter devices being the time needed to produce a perfusion image, solutions are proposed in the last part of the paper.
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The authors would like to thank: Marcus Larsson (PhD) and Ingemar Fredriksson (PhD student). IOP Publishing Limited for their acceptance to reproduce materials from "Humeau A, Koïtka A, Abraham P, Saumet JL, L’Huillier JP (2004) Spectral components of laser Doppler flowmetry signals recorded in healthy and type 1 diabetic subjects at rest and during a local and progressive cutaneous pressure application: scalogram analyses. Phys Med Biol 49: 3957–3970". SPIE publication for their acceptance to reproduce materials from "Humeau A, Koitka A, Saumet J L and L’Huillier JP (2003) Dynamic characteristics of the cutaneous vasodilator response to a local external pressure application detected by the laser Doppler flowmetry technique on anaesthetised rats, in Photon Migration and Diffuse-Light Imaging, David A. Boas, Editor, Proceedings of SPIE-OSA Biomedical Optics, SPIE 5138 72–79" and from "Humeau A, Koïtka A, Abraham P, Saumet JL, L’Huillier JP (2004) Dynamic characteristics of laser Doppler flowmetry signals obtained in response to a local and progressive pressure applied on diabetic and healthy subjects, in Photon Management, edited by Frank Wyrowski, Proceedings of SPIE, vol 5456 (SPIE, Bellingham, WA, 2004), pp 307–314".
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Humeau, A., Steenbergen, W., Nilsson, H. et al. Laser Doppler perfusion monitoring and imaging: novel approaches. Med Bio Eng Comput 45, 421–435 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-007-0170-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-007-0170-5