A feasible method for measuring the blood flow velocity in superficial artery based on the laser induced dynamic thermography

Infrared thermography has been proved to be a useful tool to detect thermal physiologic changes associated with various diseases. However, static and single point temperature mapping on skin surface provided by the infrared thermography has not been able to meet the requirements for evaluating the complicated physiological status of human body. In order to explore more physiological variables for possible disease diagnostics, the present paper has developed a laser induced dynamic thermographic modality to estimate the average velocity of the superficial blood flow by means of tracking thermal transport along blood flow direction. A conceptual in vivo experiment is designed to record dynamic temperature response of rabbit auricle skin by thermograph, which is then used to estimate the blood flow velocity through a derived theoretical model. In addition, the lumped parameter model is developed to calibrate the estimated error by compensating the thermal response time induced by the tissue temperature change that the current infrared thermal imaging system with limited thermal sensitivity may fail to capture. The final calibrated results are fitting well with that from the Doppler ultrasound measurement, which indeed verified the practicality and feasibility of the method developed in this work. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.