Methods and Limits for Micro Scale Blood Vessel Flow Imaging in Scattering Media by Optical Feedback Interferometry: Application to Human Skin

International audienceAt the micrometric scale, vessels or skin capillaries network architecture can provide usefulinformation for human health management. In this paper, from simulation to in vitro, we investigatesome limits and interests of optical feedback interferometry (OFI) for blood flow imaging of skinvascularization. In order to analyze the tissue scattering effect on OFI performances, a series of skin-tissue simulating optical phantoms have been designed, fabricated and characterized. The horizontal(2D) and vertical (depth penetration) sensing resolution of the OFI sensor have been estimated.The experimental results that we present on this study are showing a very good accordance withtheoretical models. In the case of a skin phantom of 0.5 mm depth with a scattering coefficient from0 to 10.8 mm−1, the presented OFI system is able to distinguish a pair of micro fluidic channels(100 μm×100 μm) spaced by 10μm. Eventually, an in vivo test on human skin is presented and,for the first time using an OFI sensor, a 2D blood flow image of a vein located just beneath the skinis compute