We propose a motion-robust laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) system that can be used as a non-contact blood perfusion sensor for medical diagnosis. Endoscopic LDF systems are typically limited in their usefulness in clinical contexts by the need for the natural organs to be immobilized, as serious motion artifacts due to the axial surface displacement can interfere with blood perfusion measurements. In our system, the focusing lens moves to track the motion of the target using a low-frequency reference signal in the optical data, enabling the suppression of these motion artifacts in the axial direction. This paper reports feasibility tests on a prototype of this system using a microfluidic phantom as a measurement target moving in the direction of the optical axis. The frequency spectra detected and the perfusion values calculated from those spectra show that the motion tracking system is capable of suppressing motion artifacts in perfusion readings. We compared the prototype LDF system's measurements with and without motion feedback, and found that motion tracking improves the fidelity of the perfusion signal by as much as 87%.
Keywords: artifact; blood perfusion; laser Doppler flowmetry; motion tracking.