Velocity measurements of heterogeneous RBC flow in capillary vessels using dynamic laser speckle signal.

Abstract

We propose an approach to measure heterogeneous velocities of red blood cells (RBCs) in capillary vessels using full-field time-varying dynamic speckle signals. The approach utilizes a low coherent laser speckle imaging system to record the instantaneous speckle pattern, followed by an eigen-decomposition-based filtering algorithm to extract dynamic speckle signal due to the moving RBCs. The velocity of heterogeneous RBC flows is determined by cross-correlating the temporal dynamic speckle signals obtained at adjacent locations. We verify the approach by imaging mouse pinna in vivo, demonstrating its capability for full-field RBC flow mapping and quantifying flow pattern with high resolution. It is expected to investigate the dynamic action of RBCs flow in capillaries under physiological changes.