title: Assessment of nasal mucosa blood supply by quantitative endoscopic imaging of the back-scattered light.
abstract: In this article we present a method for the objective assessment and monitoring of tissue blood supply using a specially developed endoscopic imaging colorimeter that enables quantitative color modeling of the back-scattered light during endoscopic examination. Tissue blood volume changes in the nasal mucosa, induced by xylometazoline hydrochloride nasal spray, were evaluated with this method. It was found that quantitative imaging provides sensitive, reproducible, and reliable means for the monitoring and mapping of tissue blood supply and is easy to use routinely. The results showed that saturation decreases with time, being the most sensitive color parameter to the vasoconstriction procedure. It appears that objective indexes for optical tissue characterization and analysis may be promising in the understanding of the pathophysiology of tissue changes and in the objective evaluation of their response to different therapeutic schemes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Crete, School of Medicine, Greece.
authors.forename: E P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Prokopakis
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Balas
authors.forename: P N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Christodoulou
authors.forename: N C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Gourtsoyiannis
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Tosca
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Helidonis
mesh_terms: D003124:Colorimetry; D004724:Endoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007093:Imidazoles / Q000494:pharmacology; D009297:Nasal Mucosa / Q000098:blood supply*; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D014662:Vasoconstrictor Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D014741:Video Recording
chemical_list: D007093:Imidazoles; D014662:Vasoconstrictor Agents; C009695:xylometazoline