Blood Perfusion Values of Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging and Laser Doppler Flowmetry: Is a Direct Comparison Possible?

Laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) and laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) allow the monitoring of microvascular blood perfusion. The relationship between the measurements obtained by these two techniques remains unclear. In the present contribution, we demonstrate, experimentally and theoretically, that skin blood flow measurements obtained by LDF and LSCI techniques cannot be compared directly even after "classical" normalization procedure. This technical problem is generated by the nonlinear relationship existing between LDF and LSCI flow data. The experiments have been performed on five healthy voluntary subjects (forearm) by using repeated ischemia/reperfusion cycles to induce the necessary skin blood flow changes. LDF and LSCI data were simultaneously acquired on the same region of interest. Considering the importance of this problem from the clinical point of view, it is concluded that the definition of new corrected algorithms for LSCI is probably a mandatory step that must be taken into account if LDF and LSCI blood flow have to be compared.