About 2% of the world’s population suffers from small nerve fiber dysfunction, neuropathy, which can result in severe pain. This condition is caused by damage to the small nerve fibers and its assessment is challenging, due to the lack of simple and objective diagnostic techniques. The present study aimed to develop a contactless photoplethysmography system using simple instrumentation, for objective and non-invasive assessment of small cutaneous sensory nerve fiber function. The approach is based on the use of contactless photoplethysmography for the characterization of skin flowmotions and topical heating evoked vasomotor responses. The feasibility of the technique was evaluated on volunteers (n = 14) using skin topical anesthesia, which is able to produce temporary alterations of cutaneous nerve fibers function. In the treated skin region in comparison to intact skin: neurogenic and endothelial component of flowmotions decreased by ~61% and 41%, the local heating evoked flare area decreased by ~44%, vasomotor response trend peak and nadir were substantially reduced. The results indicate for the potential of the remote photoplethysmography in the assessment of the cutaneous nerve fiber function. It is believed that in the future this technique could be used in the clinics as an affordable alternative to laser Doppler imaging technique.

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Human skin may reflect health conditions. Important and possibly diagnostically potent components of microcirculation are slow flow oscillations-flowmotions, however there is a lack of studies in this field. The present pilot study was devoted to evaluation of multispectral imaging photoplethysmography in determination of different components of flowmotions. Eight subjects were enrolled for the study. During resting conditions video was captured from dorsal aspect of hand at seven different wavelength and flowmotion analysis performed. Results indicate that at the resting conditions neurogenic component along with endothelial are dominant regardless of wavelength, while myogenic has the lowest spectral power. Results confirm the potential of multispectral photoplethysmography for cutaneous flowmotion detection.