Laser Doppler flowmetry: characteristics of a modified single-fibre technique.

The single-fibre percutaneous laser Doppler technique has been used in previous studies of intramuscular blood flow. This method facilitates studies of blood flow in deep tissue volumes and minimises the tissue trauma. The technique has been further developed with the aim of improving the signal quality. This has been accomplished by modifying the geometry of the fibre tip. By melting the fibre core material, lenses of different shapes are formed. Flat, spherical and 'pear'-type tips have been manufactured and are evaluated theoretically and experimentally. The paraxial theory cannot accurately predict the position of zones of highest irradiance. Therefore, a ray-tracing program has been developed in the C language, by means of which some of the optical properties of the modified fibre tips can be simulated. Iso-irradiance graphs and beam profiles are calculated for the three different fibre tips. Measured and calculated irradiance curves are used for evaluation of the properties of the ray-tracing model. The three types of fibre tips are also evaluated and compared in flow models. The sphere and pear-type probes show a higher flow sensitivity than the flat-end type. These improvements in flow sensitivity are interpreted as being related to the larger, strongly irradiated tissue volumes in front of the fibres. Intramuscular measurements with the pear-type probe show high sensitivities to induced blood flow changes.