In vivo measurement of skin blood microcirculation using diffusing wave correlation technique

Abstract

We combine diffusing wave spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering microscopy to simultaneous non-invasive imaging of skin blood microcirculation. We demonstrate for the first time to our knowledge that the local blood micro-flows and blood microcirculation can be observed and analyzed quantitatively at the the biological zero, when the arterial and vein flows are stopped completely. We show that the biological zero signal arises from the local blood micro-flows observed postmortem up to 100 minutes. The high sensitivity of diffusing correlation technique and the feasibility for non-invasive measurement of skin blood microcirculation is thus demonstrated, and the potential for methodology can now be explored.