title: Low-cost laser speckle contrast imaging of blood flow using a webcam.
abstract: Laser speckle contrast imaging has become a widely used tool for dynamic imaging of blood flow, both in animal models and in the clinic. Typically, laser speckle contrast imaging is performed using scientific-grade instrumentation. However, due to recent advances in camera technology, these expensive components may not be necessary to produce accurate images. In this paper, we demonstrate that a consumer-grade webcam can be used to visualize changes in flow, both in a microfluidic flow phantom and in vivo in a mouse model. A two-camera setup was used to simultaneously image with a high performance monochrome CCD camera and the webcam for direct comparison. The webcam was also tested with inexpensive aspheric lenses and a laser pointer for a complete low-cost, compact setup ($90, 5.6 cm length, 25 g). The CCD and webcam showed excellent agreement with the two-camera setup, and the inexpensive setup was used to image dynamic blood flow changes before and after a targeted cerebral occlusion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.forename: S M Shams
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kazmi
authors.forename: Janel L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Katherine E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Olin
authors.forename: Andrew K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Dunn
keywords: (040.1490) Cameras; (120.3890) Medical optics instrumentation; (120.6150) Speckle imaging; (170.3880) Medical and biological imaging