Reconstruction of cardiac displacement patterns on the chest wall by laser speckle interferometry.

Laser speckle interferometry has been used to determine the displacement pattern on the chest wall produced by the heart action during the systolic phase of the cardiac cycle. The time averaged specklegram, recorded in the image plane, is scanned by the pointwise method. From the values of the spacings of Young's fringes, measured at various points, the corresponding displacement pattern in the form of a 40 x 30 matrix, equal to that of the cardiac region, is reconstructed and color-coded by a PDP 11/23 image processor. This pattern shows significant variations in displacements at various locations. Depending on the clinical status of the subjects, further changes in the pattern are observed. The reconstructed cardiac displacement patterns, obtained by this new noncontact and noninvasive technique, provide information on the functioning of various parts of the heart in cardiac disorders which are in qualitative agreement with that of two-dimensional echocardiography.