Clinical applications of lightguide diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry in vascular disease

There is enormous potential for application of lightguide tissue reflectance spectrophotometry in the diagnosis and treatment of peripheral vascular disease. In the present study, measurements were carried out in 10 such pre-amputation patients to compare the use of micro-lightguide spectrophotometry with the macro-lightguide technique. These preliminary results show excellent agreement between the new, non-invasive micro-lightguide technique and the `gold standard' skin blood flow measurements. This technique could thus provide a more functional, non-invasive assessment of healing potential than skin blood flow measurement.

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