Basic Study on 3D Micro-tomographic Visualization of Sub-epidermal Vasculature and Capillary Blood Velocity using Optical Coherence Doppler Velocigraphy

Abstract

Rheological behavior of interstitial fluid in epidermal tissue, including blood micro-circulation, can vary skin mechanics in micro scale, i.e. visco-elasticity. Therefore, an in vivo diagnosis of capillary blood velocity is quite necessary to diagnose skin tissue. In this paper, we propose OCDV (Optical Coherence Doppler Velocigraphy), which is a method of tomographic micro-visualizing blood flow velocity and micro-vasculature based on a high frequency modulated low coherence interferometer. The rapid scanning optical delay line was implemented as a reference arm so as to monitor real-time tomography of velocity field. This system applied experimentally to human forearm skin. Consequently, this could offer tomographic blood velocity and capillary vasculature around sub-epidermis, as an in vivo tomographic diagnosing tool of blood flow velocity profiles in tissue.