Estimation of scattering phase function utilizing laser Doppler power density spectra

Diagnosis of Skin Vascular Complications Revealed by Time-Frequency Analysis and Laser Doppler Spectrum Decomposition

Nowadays, photonics-based techniques are used extensively in various applications, including functional clinical diagnosis, progress monitoring in treatment, and provision of metrological control. In fact, in the frame of practical implementation of optical methods, such as laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF), the qualitative interpretation and quantitative assessment of the detected signal remains vital and urgently required. In the conventional LDF approach, the key measured parameters, index of microcirculation and perfusion rate, are proportional to an averaged concentration of red blood cells (RBC) and their average velocity within a diagnostic volume. These quantities compose mixed signals from different vascular beds with a range of blood flow velocities and are typically expressed in relative units. In the current paper we introduce a new signal processing approach for the decomposition of LDF power spectra in terms of ranging blood flow distribution by frequency series. The developed approach was validated in standard occlusion tests conducted on healthy volunteers, and applied to investigate the influence of local pressure rendered by a probe on the surface of the skin. Finally, in limited clinical trials, we demonstrate that the approach can significantly improve the diagnostic accuracy of detection of microvascular changes in the skin of the feet in patients with Diabetes Mellitus type 2, as well as age-specific changes. The results obtained show that the developed approach of LDF signal decomposition provides essential new information about blood flow and blood microcirculation and has great potential in the diagnosis of vascular complications associated with various diseases.

Influence of light source-detector spacing on shape of probability density functions of scattering angles in laser Doppler flowmetry

Analytical models, describing laser Doppler flowmetry and its derived applications, are based on fundamental assumptions of photon scattering angles. It is shown by means of Monte Carlo simulations that, even in the case these assumptions are correct, the presence of a specific source-detector configuration may bias the shape of the probability density functions describing scattering angle behavior. It is found that these biased shapes are generated by selective filtering of photons induced by a particular source-detector configuration. In some specific cases, this phenomenon might invalidate laser Doppler analytical models.