Non invasive assessment of tissue oxygenation and blood flow as a tool for staging diabetes

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and laser speckle imaging have been identified as an effective tool in characterizing/assessing tissue oxygenation and blood flow in real time tissues. In this paper we are exploring the possibility of finding out blood flow/oxygenation at different areas of feet of subjects with different levels of diabetes. Tissue blood flow is determined by assessing the contrast variations in the laser speckle image of the foot and tissue oxygenation is assessed by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. A combination of both techniques offers an effective and purely non invasive mode of examination in the staging of Diabetes. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.