title: Early detection and differentiation of venous and arterial occlusion in skin flaps using visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and autofluorescence spectroscopy.
abstract: Our previous preclinical study demonstrated that both visible diffuse reflectance and autofluorescence spectroscopy, each of which yields a different set of physiological information, can predict skin flap viability with high accuracy in a MacFarlane rat dorsal skin flap model. In this report, we further evaluated our technique for the early detection and differentiation of venous occlusion and arterial occlusion in a rat groin flap model. We performed both diffuse reflectance and autofluorescence measurements on the skin flap model and statistically differentiated between flaps with and without occlusions as well as between flaps with venous occlusion and those with arterial occlusion based on these non-invasive optical measurements. Our preliminary results suggested that visible diffuse reflectance and autofluorescence spectroscopy can be potentially used clinically to detect both venous and arterial occlusion and differentiate one from the other accurately at an early time point.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 637457, Singapore; Currently with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Caigang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 637457, Singapore; Currently with the Sino-Dutch Biomedical and Information Engineering School, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819 China.
authors.forename: Shuo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: Christopher Hoe-Kong
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chui
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: Bien-Keem
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 637457, Singapore.
authors.forename: Quan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: (170.1470) Blood or tissue constituent monitoring; (170.4580) Optical diagnostics for medicine; (170.6510) Spectroscopy, tissue diagnostics; (170.6935) Tissue characterization