Time–frequency analysis of laser speckle contrast for transcranial assessment of cerebral blood flow

Abstract

Improving noninvasive approaches to monitoring blood microcirculation is an urgent topic in modern biomedical engineering. One of the actively developing methods is laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI), which allows not only the visualization of microvessels but also the quantitative measurements of microcirculatory blood flow. This work shows the application of LSCI for mapping the cerebral vessels of a laboratory animal, and also presents the time–frequency processing of the registered signal. Thus, we expand the capabilities of the existing LSCI approach and demonstrate spatial mapping of blood flow rhythms. The proposed technology makes it possible not only to measure the relative cerebral blood flow but also to expand diagnostic capabilities for a detailed analysis of the physiological mechanisms of changes in blood flow.