Blood flow measurement of human skeletal muscle during various exercise intensity using diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS)

Manipulative therapy (MT) is applied to motor organs through a therapist’s hands. Although MT has been utilized in various medical treatments based on its potential role for increasing the blood flow to the local muscle, a quantitative validation of local muscle blood flow in MT remains challenging due to the lack of appropriate bedside evaluation techniques. Therefore, we investigated changes in the local blood flow to the muscle undergoing MT by employing diffuse correlation spectroscopy, a portable and emerging optical measurement technology that non-invasively measures blood flow in deep tissues. This study investigated the changes in blood flow, heart rate, blood pressure, and autonomic nervous activity in the trapezius muscle through MT application in 30 volunteers without neck and shoulder injury. Five minutes of MT significantly increased the median local blood flow relative to that of the pre-MT period (p < 0.05). The post-MT local blood flow increase was significantly higher in the MT condition than in the control condition, where participants remained still without receiving MT for the same time (p < 0.05). However, MT did not affect the heart rate, blood pressure, or cardiac autonomic nervous activity. The post-MT increase in muscle blood flow was significantly higher in the participants with muscle stiffness in the neck and shoulder regions than in those without (p < 0.05). These results suggest that MT could increase the local blood flow to the target skeletal muscle, with minimal effects on systemic circulatory function.

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Impact of Changes in Tissue Optical Properties on Near-Infrared Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy Measures of Skeletal Muscle Blood Flow

Journal of Applied Physiology ◽

10.1152/japplphysiol.00857.2020 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Miles F. Bartlett ◽

Scott M. Jordan ◽

Dennis M. Hueber ◽

Michael D. Nelson

Keyword(s):

Skeletal Muscle ◽

Blood Flow ◽

Optical Properties ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Muscle Blood Flow ◽

Reactive Hyperemia ◽

Correlation Spectroscopy ◽

Skeletal Muscle Blood Flow ◽

Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy ◽

Tissue Optical Properties

Near-infrared diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) is increasingly utilized to study relative changes in skeletal muscle blood flow. However, most diffuse correlation spectrometers assume that tissue optical properties- such as absorption (μa) and reduced scattering (μ's) coefficients- remain constant during physiological provocations, which is untrue for skeletal muscle. Here, we interrogate how changes in tissue μa and μ's affect DCS calculations of blood flow index (BFI). We recalculated BFI using raw autocorrelation curves and μa/μ's values recorded during a reactive hyperemia protocol in 16 healthy young individuals. First, we show that incorrectly assuming baseline μa and μ's substantially affects peak BFI and BFI slope when expressed in absolute terms (cm2/s, p<0.01) but these differences are abolished when expressed in relative terms (% baseline). Next, to evaluate the impact of physiologic changes in μa and μ's, we compared peak BFI and BFI slope when μa and μ's were held constant throughout the reactive hyperemia protocol versus integrated from a 3s-rolling average. Regardless of approach, group means for peak BFI and BFI slope did not differ. Group means for peak BFI and BFI slope were also similar following ad absurdum analyses, where we simulated supraphysiologic changes in μa/μ's. In both cases, however, we identified individual cases where peak BFI and BFI slope were indeed affected, with this result being driven by relative changes in μa over μ's. Overall, these results provide support for past reports in which μa/μ's were held constant but also advocate for real-time incorporation of μa and μ's moving forward.

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