Significance: We propose a technique devoted to real-time high-resolution imaging of skin microvascularization.
Aim: The process utilizes the temporal variation of the spatially depolarized optical speckle field generated by moving red blood cells when illuminated with fully polarized coherent light.
Approach: Polarimetric filtering prevents the contribution of surface scattering from reaching the camera and thus favors the detection of multiscattered photons from the deeper layers of the skin.
Results: Full-field images reveal the microvasculature with a spatial resolution of 80 μm. The acquisition speed allows for real-time applications.
Conclusions: We demonstrate the ability of this method to determine in 1 s a stable and reliable microvascular activity, enabling numerous clinical applications that require quantitative measurements.
Keywords: coherent imaging; dermatology; dynamic speckle; laser; polarization; skin.