Reliability of laser Doppler flowmetry in a 2-probe assessment of pulpal blood flow.
OBJECTIVE
The reliability of using 2 probes with laser Doppler signals when adjacent teeth are being measured simultaneously to determine pulpal blood flow is unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine whether 2 probes are more reliable than 1 in a single-tool assessment.


METHODS
Tooth pulp vitality was studied in 19 adults through use of laser Doppler flowmetry tests. In each subject, testing was carried out on 2 successive occasions with 2 probes positioned on the maxillary central incisors.


RESULTS
Significant mean differences of 31% for blood flux and 96% for concentration were found between the 2 probes, although they shared equal coefficients of variation. The reproducibility for each probe was found to be consistent, and the probes were highly correlated with each other. Flux and concentration, however, were not systematically correlated.


CONCLUSIONS
Simultaneous measurements with 2 probes were clearly more reliable. The necessity for a calibration control was evident.
Department of Operative Dentistry & Endodontology, School of Dentistry, University of Gent, Belgium.
H
H
Roeykens
G
G
Van Maele
R
R
De Moor
L
L
Martens
D000328:Adult; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D003782:Dental Pulp / Q000098:blood supply*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007180:Incisor / Q000098:blood supply; D017078:Laser-Doppler Flowmetry / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008437:Maxilla; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric