I-Corps: Non-invasive Camera-based Blood Perfusion Imaging

该I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是评估可以可靠测量血液灌注的新成像模式的商业潜力。该系统将使外科医生能够实时可视化和分析手术部位的血流，从而帮助他们在手术室做出更好的临床决策，降低术后并发症的发生率，从而整体降低医疗成本。血液灌注成像的当前技术水平是基于将造影剂注射到血流中并且因此具有潜在副作用的侵入性，或者是基于复杂的基于激光的成像设备，其在手术期间可能难以操作。这里开发的系统仅依赖于观察部位的视频记录来可靠地估计血液灌注，因此是非侵入性的并且易于使用。除了手术之外，该系统还可以用于重症监护患者的监护，也可以作为足科的即时设备，特别是用于糖尿病神经病变的早期检测。I-Corps项目进一步开发了一种非接触、非侵入、基于摄像头的临床精确血液灌注测量系统。使用低成本、大规模生产的硬件，结合复杂的信号处理算法，该系统可以真实的时间估计血液灌注图。 关键的创新在于：（i）来自多个传感器-相机和脉搏血氧计的数据融合，（ii）用于从皮肤表面的视频恢复皮肤下的血液灌注的新的计算成像和信号处理算法，以及（iii）用于补偿成像的组织表面的运动的新方法。该技术不仅可以用于外部组织的视频记录，例如皮肤表面，还可以用于内部组织和器官，例如在使用腹腔镜的微创手术期间。该系统已被成功地证明在部分和完全闭塞的血管过程中检测血液灌注的微小变化。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to evaluate the commercial potential of a new imaging modality that can reliably measure blood perfusion. The system will enable surgeons to visualize and analyze blood flow at a surgical site in real-time, thereby assisting them in making better clinical decisions in the operating room, reduce the rate of post-operative complications, leading to overall reduction in healthcare costs. The current state-of-the-art for blood perfusion imaging is either based on injecting a contrast agent into the bloodstream and are therefore invasive with potential side-effects, or based on sophisticated Laser-based imaging device which can be difficult to operate during surgery. The system developed here relies only on the video recordings of the observation site to reliably estimate blood perfusion, and hence is both non-invasive and is easy-to-use. Beyond surgery, there is a potential of using the system to monitor critical care patients and also as a point-of-care device in podiatry, especially for the early detection of diabetic neuropathy.This I-Corps project further develops a non-contact, non-invasive, camera-based and clinically accurate blood perfusion measurement system. Using low-cost, mass-produced hardware, combined with sophisticated signal processing algorithms, the system can estimate blood perfusion maps in real time. The key innovation lies in: (i) data fusion from multiple sensors - camera and pulse oximeter, (ii) a new computational imaging and signal processing algorithm to recover blood perfusion below the skin, from videos of the skin surface, and (iii) a novel approach to compensate motion of the imaged tissue surface. The technology can work not only with video recordings of the external tissue, such as skin surface, but also internal tissue and organs, such as during a minimally invasive surgery with a laparoscope. The system has been successfully demonstrated in detecting small changes in blood perfusion during partial and full occlusion of the blood vessels.