Microcirculation monitoring with real time spatial frequency domain imaging

We present a spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI) study of local hemodynamics in the forearm of healthy volunteers performing paced breathing. Real time Single Snapshot Multiple Frequency Demodulation - Spatial Frequency Domain Imaging (SSMD-SFDI) was used to map the optical properties of the subsurface of the forearm continuously. The oscillations of the concentrations of deoxy- and oxyhemoglobin at the subsurface of the forearm induced by paced breathing are found to be close to out-of-phase, attributed to the dominance of the blood flow modulation by paced breathing. The properties of local microcirculation including the blood transit times through capillaries and venules are extracted by fitting to Simplified Hemodynamics Model. Our preliminary results suggest that the real time SSMD-SFDI platform may serve as one effective imaging modality for microcirculation monitoring.