Dynamic optical tomographic imaging has shown promise in diagnosing and monitoring peripheral arterial disease (PAD), which affects 8 to 12 million in the United States. PAD is the narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the lower extremities. Prolonged reduced blood flow to the foot leads to ulcers and gangrene, which makes placement of optical fibers for contact-based optical tomography systems difficult and cumbersome. Since many diabetic PAD patients have foot wounds, a non-contact interface is highly desirable. We present a novel non-contact dynamic continuous-wave optical tomographic imaging system that images the vasculature in the foot for evaluating PAD. The system images at up to 1Hz by delivering 2 wavelengths of light to the top of the foot at up to 20 source positions through collimated source fibers. Transmitted light is collected with an electron multiplying charge couple device (EMCCD) camera. We demonstrate that the system can resolve absorbers at various locations in a phantom study and show the system’s first clinical 3D images of total hemoglobin changes in the foot during venous occlusion at the thigh. Our initial results indicate that this system is effective in capturing the vascular dynamics within the foot and can be used to diagnose and monitor treatment of PAD in diabetic patients.

Date Published: 4 March 2015
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 9313, Advanced Biomedical and Clinical Diagnostic and Surgical Guidance Systems XIII, 931312 (4 March 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2080184

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9313:
Advanced Biomedical and Clinical Diagnostic and Surgical Guidance Systems XIII
Anita Mahadevan-Jansen; Tuan Vo-Dinh; Warren S. Grundfest M.D.; Quan Liu, Editor(s)