Measurement of point velocity in the canine coronary artery by laser Doppler velocimeter with optical fiber.

A laser Doppler velocimeter with an optical fiber was developed to investigate point blood velocity in the arteries and was applied to the measurement of blood velocity in the canine coronary artery. Fundamental experiments revealed that the accuracy of this method was satisfactory, since an excellent linear relation was found between the known blood velocity and the Doppler shift frequency (r = 0.998). The fiber tip (0.1 mm diam.) was inserted into the proximal portion of the left circumflex coronary artery and was traversed across the vascular lumen to measure the point velocity at each sampling point. Detailed velocity profiles were than reconstructed sequentially in three dimensional coordinates, i.e., velocity, diameter and time. In general the velocity waveform showed a diastolic dominant pattern which is characteristic of coronary arterial flow. One peak in early systole and two peaks in early and in late diastole were commonly observed in the velocity waveform near the center-line of the vessel. The velocity profiles were flat in the axial region and declined abruptly near the vessel wall. These results indicate that the laser Doppler velocimetry with an optimal fiber proved to be an accurate and feasible method of evaluating the point velocity of coronary artery flow.