Pseudo three-dimensional vision-based nail-fold morphological and hemodynamic analysis

  • Authors:

  • Lun-Chien Lo;Ker-Cheng Lin;Yuan-Nian Hsu;Tsung-Po Chen;John Y. Chiang;Yung-Fu Chen;Yin-Tso Liu

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan and Graduate Institute of Statistics and Information Science, National Changhua University of Education, C ...;Department of Director Center, Nantou Hospital, Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Nantou, Taiwan;Department of Director Center, Taoyuan General Hospital, Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taoyuan, Taiwan;Chen Tsung-Po Clinic, Taichung, Taiwan and Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan;Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, 70 Lienhai Rd., Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan;Department of Healthcare Administration, Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology, 666 Buzih Road, Beitun District, Taichung 40601, Taiwan and Department of Health Services Administrati ...;Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Taichung Hospital, Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taichung, Taiwan

  • Venue:
  • Computers in Biology and Medicine
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

In this study, a Pseudo three-dimensional Vision-based Nail-fold Morphological and Hemodynamic Analysis (PTVNMHA) is proposed to automatically extract morphological/hemodynamic features from a microscopic nail-fold image sequence, reconstruct the corresponding pseudo three-dimensional microvascular models, and visualize the dynamic blood flow in the model constructed. The morphological features extracted include the number, width/height, density, arteriolar limb caliber, curved segment caliber, venular limb caliber, blood color, tortuosity, and width of the curved segment of capillaries. The hemodynamic features identified are blood flow velocity and blood flow rate. All are significant pathological indicators with a spatial precision up to 1.6@mm. The diameters of cross-sections along the centerlines of capillaries are identified and employed to reconstruct the pseudo three-dimensional microvascular surface meshes. The microscopic image sequence acquired is mapped to the corresponding microvascular model constructed to perform dynamic blood flow visualization. Compared with laser Doppler velocimetry, PTVNMHA can derive blood flow velocities for each capillary across the microscopic range separately in much higher precision and obtain diversified morphological and hemodynamic features of capillaries with a low-cost equipment setup. In addition to the blood flow velocity, blood flow rate, which keeps almost constant no matter where the measuring position is in a capillary, has also been measured and proposed as a useful feature to discriminate patients with hypertension from the normal with great significance (p