An Instrument to Measure Cutaneous Blood Flow Using the Doppler Shift of Laser Light

A system utilizing the Doppler shift of monochromatic laser light has been developed to measure blood flow in skin. Light from a low power (S mW) He-Ne laser is coupled into a quartz fiber and transmitted to the skin. This light is reflected from both the nonmoving tissues (reference beam) and moving red blood cells (Doppler shifted beam), received by a plastic fiber, and transmitted back to a photodiode where optical heterodyning occurs. The heterodyned output signal, which is proportional to the Doppler shift frequency, is amplified and both RMS and dc values obtained. The RMS value is weighted against the backscattered light intensity using the measured dc value as an index of total received power. This is used as the output flow velocity value.