Laser-Doppler flowmetry at large interoptode spacing in human tibia diaphysis: Monte Carlo simulations and preliminary experimental results.

Laser-Doppler flowmetry (LDF) is an outstanding tool to monitor blood flow in a continuous and non-invasive way. In this work, we study LDF at large interoptode spacing applied to a human bone model (i.e. tibia diaphysis). To that aim, we first performed an extensive set of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations for 10 and 25 mm interoptode spacing. Second, we have assembled a dedicated LDF instrumentation based on an optimized industrial avalanche photo-detector. We performed LDF experimental measurements on human muscle using well-known physiological protocols, which confirmed the reliability of our instrumentation and the relevance of the LDF algorithms tested with the MC simulations. In a second set, we repeated the measurements on human tibia diaphysis. Again, the experiments corroborate the MC simulations and demonstrate the effectiveness of LDF to monitor blood perfusion in bone. The proposed technique has great potential for non-invasive neuro-vascular studies since it will certainly help to reveal the mechanisms underlying the interaction between bone/bone marrow, the circulatory system and the nervous system.