Validation of diffuse correlation spectroscopy for muscle blood flow with concurrent arterial spin labeled perfusion MRI.

Calf blood flow was measured simultaneously in healthy human subjects (n = 7) during cuff inflation and deflation using near-infrared diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) and arterial spin labeled perfusion MRI (ASL-MRI). The DCS and ASL-MRI data exhibited highly correlated absolute and relative dynamic flow responses in each individual (p < 0.001). Peak flow variations during hyperemia were also significantly correlated, though more for relative (p = 0.003) than absolute (p = 0.016) flow. Repeated measurement variation was less than 8% for both modalities. The results provide much needed quantitative blood flow validation of the diffuse optical correlation method in humans.