| Summary: | Laser speckle contrast analysis (LASCA), as a method of measuring blood flow speed and tissue perfusion, is a full field imaging technique requiring simple configurations and data processing, which is important for the application in real time in vivo. But LASCA is sensitive to changes in environmental factors. The application in vivo is also limited to superficial detection due to the limitation of the light penetration depth. Therefore this thesis aims to develop an endoscopic LASCA system to extend the access to internal detection and explore the relationship between the contrast and experimental parameters. Firstly the relationship between the contrast and speckle size, flow mode, quantity of stationary scatterers and the signal intensity were investigated. Theoretical models for the relationship between the contrast and the mean intensity of the speckle pattern were deduced and the correction methods were introduced to correct the contrast bias due to the intensity difference. Then a flexible single wavelength endoscopic laser speckle contrast analysis system (ELASCA) was developed using a leached fibre image guide (LFIG). A Butterworth filter and defocus were used to remove the fibre pattern to retrieve the contrast images. This system and the data processing methods were used on a customized phantom demonstrating that this ELASCA system can detect the flow speed changes in an imaging domain. Afterwards a dual-wavelength ELASCA was developed for functional imaging of the blood circulation. The test on a human fingertip and rabbit uterine blood vessels show that this system can monitor the change of blood flow speed and the oxygen saturation introduced by occlusion, in addition to the cardiac pulse and respiration rate. Then a novel application of LASCA to visualize the ultrasound pressure field and the propagation of the shear wave is presented for the application of locating area of interest (AOI) and detecting tissue variation.
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