title: Reconstruction of Thermographic Signals to Map Perforator Vessels in Humans.
abstract: Thermal representations on the surface of a human forearm of underlying perforator vessels have previously been mapped via recovery-enhanced infrared imaging, which is performed as skin blood flow recovers to baseline levels following cooling of the forearm. We noted that the same vessels could also be observed during reactive hyperaemia tests after complete 5-min occlusion of the forearm by an inflatable cuff. However, not all subjects showed vessels with acceptable contrast. Therefore, we applied a thermographic signal reconstruction algorithm to reactive hyperaemia testing, which substantially enhanced signal-to-noise ratios between perforator vessels and their surroundings, thereby enabling their mapping with higher accuracy and a shorter occlusion period.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wei-Min
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jordan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maivelett
authors.forename: Gregory J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: James G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Wen-Chin
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yun-Chung
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: You-Gang
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Alexander M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gorbach
keywords: blood flow regulation; infrared imaging; perforator vessels; reactive hyperemia; skin microcirculation; thermographic signal reconstruction