Background: Flowmotion analysis of the microcirculatory blood flow is a method to extract information about the vessel regulatory function. It has previously shown promise when applied to measurements during a post-occlusive reactive hyperemia. However, the reperfusion peak and the following monotonic decline introduces false low frequencies that should not be interpreted as rhythmic vasomotion effect.
Aim: To develop and validate a robust method for flowmotion analysis of post-occlusive reactive hyperemia signals.
Method: The occlusion-induced reperfusion response contains a typical rapid increase followed by a monotonic decline to baseline. A mathematical model is proposed to detrend this transient part of the signal to enable further flowmotion analysis. The model is validated in 96 measurements on healthy volunteers.
Results: Applying the proposed model corrects the flowmotion signal without adding any substantial new false flowmotion components.
Conclusion: Future studies should use the proposed method or equivalent when analyzing flowmotion during post-occlusive reactive hyperemia to ensure valid results.
Keywords: Flowmotion; Laser Doppler flowmetry; Microcirculation; Vasomotion.
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