title: The asymmetric facial skin perfusion distribution of Bell's palsy discovered by laser speckle imaging technology.
abstract: Bell's palsy is a kind of peripheral neural disease that cause abrupt onset of unilateral facial weakness. In the pathologic study, it was evidenced that ischemia of facial nerve at the affected side of face existed in Bell's palsy patients. Since the direction of facial nerve blood flow is primarily proximal to distal, facial skin microcirculation would also be affected after the onset of Bell's palsy. Therefore, monitoring the full area of facial skin microcirculation would help to identify the condition of Bell's palsy patients. In this study, a non-invasive, real time and full field imaging technology - laser speckle imaging (LSI) technology was applied for measuring facial skin blood perfusion distribution of Bell's palsy patients. 85 participants with different stage of Bell's palsy were included. Results showed that Bell's palsy patients' facial skin perfusion of affected side was lower than that of the normal side at the region of eyelid, and that the asymmetric distribution of the facial skin perfusion between two sides of eyelid is positively related to the stage of the disease (P <  0.001). During the recovery, the perfusion of affected side of eyelid was increasing to nearly the same with the normal side. This study was a novel application of LSI in evaluating the facial skin perfusion of Bell's palsy patients, and we discovered that the facial skin blood perfusion could reflect the stage of Bell's palsy, which suggested that microcirculation should be investigated in patients with this neurological deficit. It was also suggested LSI as potential diagnostic tool for Bell's palsy.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China.|Shenzhen College of Advanced Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China.
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Shenzhen Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital, Shenzhen, China.
authors.forename: Weizheng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Shenzhen Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital, Shenzhen, China.
authors.forename: Haibo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Shenzhen Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital, Shenzhen, China.
authors.forename: Zhifeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Shenzhen Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital, Shenzhen, China.
authors.forename: Yuhai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China.|Shenzhen College of Advanced Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China.
authors.forename: Wenlong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D020330:Bell Palsy / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005145:Face / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005158:Facial Paralysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012867:Skin / Q000294:innervation*
keywords: Bell’s palsy; Microcirculation; eyelid; facial paralysis; facial skin; laser speckle imaging