Establishing the quantitative relationship between diffuse speckle contrast analysis signals with absolute blood flow

Jialin Liu; Haiyang Wang; Peipei Wang; Zhiliang Jin; Weimin Li; Hongchao Zhang; Zhonghua Shen; Daxi Xiong

doi:10.1364/BOE.9.004792

Establishing the quantitative relationship between diffuse speckle contrast analysis signals with absolute blood flow

Biomed Opt Express. 2018 Sep 12;9(10):4792-4806. doi: 10.1364/BOE.9.004792. eCollection 2018 Oct 1.

Authors

Jialin Liu¹, Haiyang Wang¹, Peipei Wang¹, Zhiliang Jin¹, Weimin Li¹, Hongchao Zhang², Zhonghua Shen², Daxi Xiong¹

Affiliations

¹ Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 88 Keling Street, Suzhou 215163, China.
² School of Science, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, No. 200 Xiaolingwei Street, Nanjing 210094, China.

Abstract

Diffuse speckle contrast analysis (DSCA) measures blood flow in deep tissues by taking advantage of the sensitivity of the speckle contrast signal to red blood cells (RBCs) motions. However, there has yet to be presented a clearly defined relationship between the absolute blood flow BF_abs and the measured speckle contrast signal. Here, we derive an expression of linear approximation function for speckle contrast, taking into account both shear-induced diffusive and correlated advective RBCs motions in the vessels. We provide a linear relationship between the slope k _slope of this linear function and BF_abs. The feasibility of this relationship is validated by Monte Carlo simulations of heterogeneous tissue with varying vessel radii. Furthermore, based on this quantitative relationship, we can determine the relative contributions of diffusive RBCs motion on the reduction of speckle contrast, considering different vascular morphology and flow profiles.