There has been a consistent growth in research involving imaging of microvasculature over the past few decades. By 2008, publications mentioning the microcirculation had grown more than 2000 per annum. Many techniques have been demonstrated for the measurement of the microcirculation ranging from the earliest invasive techniques to the present high-speed, high-resolution noninvasive imaging techniques. Understanding the microvasculature is vital in tackling fundamental research questions as well as to understand the effects of disease progression on the physiological well-being of an individual. We have previously provided a wide-ranging review covering most of the available techniques and their applications. In this review, we discuss the recent advances made and applications in the field of microcirculation imaging.
Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive depth resolved optical imaging modality, that enables high resolution, cross-sectional imaging in biological tissues and materials at clinically relevant depths. Though OCT offers high resolution imaging, the best ultra-high-resolution OCT systems are limited to imaging structural changes with a resolution of one micron on a single B-scan within very limited depth. Nanosensitive OCT (nsOCT) is a recently developed technique that is capable of providing enhanced sensitivity of OCT to structural changes. Improving the sensitivity of OCT to detect structural changes at the nanoscale level, to a depth typical for conventional OCT, could potentially improve the diagnostic capability of OCT in medical applications. In this paper, we demonstrate the capability of nsOCT to detect structural changes deep in the rat cornea following superficial corneal injury. Fig. 8. Spatial period profiles obtained by Fourier transform of histology line profiles (a) healthy cornea (b) injured cornea (c) box plot showing the spatial period distribution of healthy and injured cornea.
Blood flow velocity and red blood cell concentration are of vital importance in assessing tissue microcirculation. Laser speckle contrast analysis is being considered as a promising tool in the qualitative assessment of flow velocity as well as scatterer concentration in different body fluids, though the quantification part still remains challenging. The fractal-based spatial correlation analysis of speckle flow images along with the corresponding contrast analysis for the quantitative assessment of flow and scatterer concentration is investigated. In this study, phantom body fluid solution (intralipid 20%) of different concentrations is pumped at different flow rates through the designed flow channel using a syringe pump and the corresponding speckle images are acquired. The fractality of the acquired speckle images in response to the changes in concentration of the fluid as well as the variations in fluid flow is analyzed along with the corresponding contrast-based analysis. Following this qualitative analysis, an experimental model is attempted toward quantification of these parameters from a single acquired speckle image by considering the contrast and fractality changes together.
Measurement and analysis of microcirculation is vital in assessing local and systemic tissue health. Changes in microvascular perfusion if detected can provide information on the development of various related diseases. Laser Doppler blood flowmetry (LDF) provides a non-invasive real-time measurement of cutaneous blood perfusion. LDF signals possess fractal nature that represents the correlation in the successive signal elements. Changes in the correlation of flow and its associated parameters could be used as a tool in differentiating the ailments at different stages or assessing the treatment effectiveness of a particular ailment. Spectral domain analysis of LDF signals reveals five characteristic frequency peaks corresponding to local and central regulatory mechanisms of the human body, namely metabolic, neurogenic, myogenic, respiration, and heart rate. This paper investigates the changes in the fractal nature and constituent frequency bands of laser Doppler signals in diabetic and healthy control subjects acquired from the glabrous skin of the foot so as to provide an assessment of microcirculatory dynamics. As a pilot study, it was attempted on a set of healthy control and diabetic volunteers, and the obtained results indicate that fractal nature of LDF signals is less in diabetic subjects compared to the healthy control. The wavelet analysis carried out on the set of signals reveals the dynamics of blood flow which may have led to the difference in correlation results.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography is a well-established in vivo imaging technique to assess the overall vascular morphology of tissues and is an emerging field of research for the assessment of blood flow dynamics and functional parameters such as oxygen saturation. In this study, we present a modified scanning-based correlation mapping OCT using a 200 kHz high-speed swept-source OCT system operating at 1300 nm and demonstrate its wide field-imaging capability in ocular angiographic studies.
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