Paper
Development of a Miniaturized Fiber-optic LDV Sensor for Local Blood Velocity Measurement
- Authors:
- Kenkichi Ohba; Tsutomu Tajikawa; Shimpei Kohri
- Abstract
- A novel, less invasive, miniaturized fiber-optic laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) sensor, which can be directly inserted into a blood vessel was developed for clinical use in measurements of local blood velocity. A convex lens-like surface was formed by a chemical etching on the fiber’s tip that had a core diameter of 50 μm. A laser beam that was emitted from the fiber’s tip was focused and formed the measuring volume. This fiber sensor was inserted at an insertion angle of 60° through an injection needle, into the flow duct of an acrylic pipe in which highly concentrated fluid, such as whole blood, was flowing in a pulsatile manner. The flow was modeled after human middle cerebral arterial flow. In this study, the local flow velocity and velocity profile across the duct were measured in the pulsatile flow of a dense suspension of a white pigment. The results were compared both with the results obtained using a fringe-mode LDV and with the results that were calculated on the basis of Womersley's oscillatory flow theory. Consequently, it was found that the local velocity and its profile in the pulsatile flow can be successfully measured using the present fiber-optic LDV sensor, which proved the capability of the sensor as a diagnostic device.
- Keywords
- Fiber-optic LDV Sensor; Pulsatile Flow; Blood Fluid; Local Velocity Measurement
- StartPage
- 131
- EndPage
- 138
- Doi
- 10.5963/BER0203002