Effect of static scatterers in laser speckle contrast imaging: an experimental study on correlation and contrast.

Effect of static scatterers in laser speckle contrast imaging: an experimental study on correlation and contrast.
Phys Med Biol. 2017 Dec 05;:
Authors: Vaz PG, Humeau-Heurtier A, Figueiras E, Correia C, Cardoso JMR
Abstract
Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) is a non-invasive microvascular blood flow assessment technique with good temporal and spatial resolutions. Most LSCI systems, including commercials devices, can only perform qualitative blood flow evaluation which is a major limitation of this technique. There are several factors that prevent LSCI to be a quantitative technique. Among these factors we can highlight the effect of static scatterers. The goal of this work was to study the influence of different static and dynamic scatterers concentrations on laser speckle correlation and contrast. In order to achieve this, a laser speckle prototype was developed and tested using an optical phantom with different concentrations of static and dynamic scatterers. It has been found that the laser speckle correlation can be used to estimate the relative concentration of static/dynamic scatterers within a sample. Moreover, the speckle correlation proved to be independent of the dynamic scatterers velocity which is a fundamental characteristic to be used as contrast correction method.
PMID: 29205168 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Physics in Medicine and Biology - December 5, 2017 Category: Physics Authors: Vaz PG, Humeau-Heurtier A, Figueiras E, Correia C, Cardoso JMR Tags: Phys Med Biol Source Type: research