Multichannel laser-Doppler probe for blood perfusion measurements with depth discrimination.

The laser-Doppler method is frequently used in clinical experiments for blood perfusion measurement. A multichannel laser-Doppler probe was constructed, and calibrated and evaluated using a flow model and real examination of healthy subjects. Results obtained on a three-capillary flow model suggest that the probe can be used to obtain information from superficial and deeper layers of the tissue. The influence of the optical arrangement of the laser-Doppler probe on the parameters of post-occlusive reactive hyperaemia was investigated in a group of 15 healthy subjects. A statistically significant increase of biological zero with distance between emitting and detecting fibres was noted.