Aston research gives accurate measure of blood flow in feet of patients with type 2 diabetes

Using lasers, their findings have resulted in improved accuracy in detecting tiny changes in microcirculation, which occurs in the smallest vessels within the circulatory system.

Changes in flow at this level can affect whether tissue lives or dies and people with type 2 diabetes can be at risk of foot amputations due to circulatory complications caused by their condition.

Laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) is commonly used to monitor blood-flow in the skin, but this method relies on averages of blood flow and is not always accurate.

Now, Aston University researchers have suggested a new approach to process LDF light signals that is more precise.

The research is described in Diagnosis of Skin Vascular Complications Revealed by Time-Frequency Analysis and Laser Doppler Spectrum Decomposition which is published in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

Currently, LDF measures the blood perfusion, which is a quantity proportional to an average volume of blood flowing through an average volume of tissue per an average unit time.

The new method separates the LDF signals allowing blood flow to be measured in a specific area of the vascular bed such as capillaries or veins.

According to Aston, the proposed approach has a great potential to be incorporated in existing bedside and wearable LDF-based devices for the more advanced clinical diagnosis of blood flow and blood flow microcirculation.

The new approach has undergone tests on healthy volunteers and pilot clinical trials on diabetes patients by applying a probe to their skin. The new method is said to have showed a significant improvement in the diagnostic accuracy of detection of microvascular changes in the skin of the feet in patients with type 2 diabetes, as well as age-specific changes.

The research was led by Professor of mechanical, biomedical and design engineering, Igor Meglinski and Dr Viktor Dremen of the Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies (AIPT).

“We’re delighted to have found a more accurate method of blood flow diagnosis in skin that, we believe, can help people with diabetes,” Professor Meglinski said in a statement. “In the future this technique could pave the way for more precise imaging of blood flow in the brain and other biological tissues.”