Deep tissue flowmetry based on diffuse speckle contrast analysis

Diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) is an emerging modality for noninvasive deep tissue blood flow monitoring that is becoming increasingly popular; it conducts an autocorrelation analysis of fast fluctuating photon count signals from a single speckle. In this Letter, we show that the same level of deep tissue flow information can be obtained from a much simpler analysis on the spatial distribution of the speckles that is obtained by a CCD camera, which we named diffuse speckle contrast analysis (DSCA). Both the flow phantom experiment and in vivo cuff occlusion data are presented. DSCA can be considered a new optical modality that combines DCS and laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI), which exploits simple instrumentation and analysis and yet is sensitive to deep tissue flow.