Renars Erts

Simultaneous recording of skin blood pulsations at different vascular depths by multiwavelength photoplethysmography

A new technique for parallel recording of reflection photoplethysmography (PPG) signals in a broad spectral band (violet to near-infrared) has been developed, and its potential for assessment of blood microcirculation at various depths from the skin surface is discussed. PPG signals have been simultaneously detected at cw laser wavelength sets comprising 405, 532, 645, 807, and 1064 nm. Various signal baseline responses to breath holding and different shapes of the PPG pulses originated from the same heartbeat but recorded at different wavelengths have been observed, indicating a depth variety of the skin blood pulsation dynamics.

Bilateral photoplethysmography studies of the leg arterial stenosis

A newly developed portable multi-channel photoplethysmography (PPG) device has been used for comparative studies of 20 healthy control subjects and 45 patients with diagnosed arterial stenosis in a leg. The peripheral blood pulsations were detected simultaneously at four body sites-the same fingers and toes of both arms and legs. The PPG pulses recorded at the periphery of the stenotic leg, if compared with those of the healthy leg, were much weaker, with delayed arrival as a consequence of increased pulse wave transit time (PWTT) due to higher vascular resistance. The specific PWTT delays for the occluded legs were in the range of 20-80 ms, while in the case of healthy subjects the leg PPG signals arrived without delays or with smaller time-shifts not exceeding 14 ms. The reference bilateral PPG signals detected at the fingertips did not show any notable PWTT delays in both groups. Parallel measurements of local blood pressures by means of the oscillometry method with subsequent calculation of the ankle-brachial index were performed. Convincing correlation between the bilateral differences in the local blood pressure (a routine tool for diagnostics of leg stenosis) and in the corresponding PWTT delay (Pearsons coefficient r = 0.93), as well as between the PWTT delay and the ankle-brachial index (r = -0.96) has been established. From the point of view of PWTT delay, the average value of leg stenosis diagnostic threshold was established to be in the range of 23 +/- 9 ms, with full reliability above 32 ms. The obtained data may find further applications in alternative methodologies for detection and/or assessment of arterial occlusions in human extremities.

Wearable wireless photoplethysmography sensors

Wearable health monitoring sensors may support early detection of abnormal conditions and prevention of their consequences. Recent designs of three wireless photoplethysmography monitoring devices embedded in hat, glove and sock, and connected to PC or mobile phone by means of the Bluetooth technology, are described. First results of distant monitoring of heart rate and pulse wave transit time using the newly developed devices are presented.

Imaging of laser-excited tissue autofluorescence bleaching rates

Experimental methodology for imaging of laser-excited tissue autofluorescence bleaching rates has been developed and clinically tested. The fluorescence images were periodically captured from the same tissue area over a certain time, with subsequent detection of the fluorescence intensity decrease rate at each image pixel and further imaging the planar distribution of those values. Spectral features at each image pixel were analyzed with a hyperspectral imaging camera. Details of the equipment and image processing are described as well as some measurement results that confirm the feasibility of the proposed technology.

Monitoring of blood pulsation using non-contact technique

Time resolved detection and analysis of the skin back-scattered optical signals (reflection photople- thysmography or contact PPG) provide rich information on skin blood volume pulsations and can serve for car- diovascular assessment. The widely used contact PPG technique has many limitations, like high sensitivity to sensor movement etc. The newly developed non-contact PPG technique has been developed in this work. Poten- tial of the new technique for express-assessment of hu- man cardio-vascular condition has been demonstrated.

The analysis of blood flow changes under local anesthetic input using non-contact technique

In this work photoplethysmography imaging (PPGI) technique was used to obtain blood flow changes in human skin under regional anesthesia (RA). PPGI was evaluated from video taken by video camera for 26 patients 2 minutes before and immediately after RA, using custom developed software. Results showed that blood flow obtained by PPGI increases immediately after RA effect and the amplitude of PPGI showed correlation with temperature changes in human skin (r=0.8±0.14, p<0.0001). We found that PPGI technique can be usable for non-contact monitoring of quality of RA.

The blood perfusion mapping in the human skin by photoplethysmography imaging

A CMOS camera-based imaging photoplethysmographic (PPGI) system is described to detect the blood pulsations in tissue. Attention of PPGI is drawn to the potential applications in visualized blood perfusion. Intensity variations of three wavelengths (620 nm, 520 nm and 432 nm) were detected and analyzed in each pixel of image. To obtain a twodimensional mapping of the dermal perfusion measurement, custom image-processing software has been developed. The high-resolution PPGI images were derived from human fingers (transmission mode) and face (reflection mode), evaluated at three wavelengths. The newly developed system can be usable in skin blood perfusion monitoring for clinical applications.

Micro-circulation of skin blood: optical monitoring by advanced photoplethysmography techniques

Blood micro-circulation in upper skin layers has been studied experimentally in real time by advanced two-channel photoplethysmography (PPG) techniques. The blood volume changes caused by micro-vessel expansion and dilution during the cardiac cycles have been detected by infrared optical contact sensors. A newly developed portable monitoring device comprising a lap-top computer was used for accumulation and processing of the bio-signals. Shapes of the PPG signals detected at different sites of the body were compared with these obtained by computer modeling.

A portable device for optical assessment of the cardiovascular condition

A hand-held prototype device for detection and processing of the tissue-remitted optical signals has been developed and tested. The photoplethysmography (PPG) principle was applied to follow the dilation and contraction of skin blood vessels during the cardiac cycle. Cardiovascular condition of the monitored person was assessed by temporal analysis of the recorded PPG signals as well as by shape analysis of the mean single-period PPG signals.

Multi-spectral photoplethysmography biosensor

A photoplethysmography (PPG) signal can provide very useful information about a subjects hemodynamic status in a hospital or home environment. A newly developed portable multi-spectral photoplethysmography device has been used for studies of 11 healthy subjects. The developed optical fiber biosensor comprises one multi-wavelength laser diode (405nm, 660nm and 780nm) and a single photodiode with multi-channel signal output processing and built in Li-ion accumulator; special software was created for visualization and measuring of the MS-PPG signals. ARM7TDMI-S LPC2148, NXP (founded by Philips) 32 bit processor with clock frequency of 60 MHz performs measurement and analysis of the signal.