Blood Flow Prediction in Multi-Exposure Speckle Contrast Imaging Using Conditional Generative Adversarial Network

Purpose Blood perfusion is an important physiological parameter that can be quantitatively assessed using various imaging techniques. Blood flow prediction in laser speckle contrast imaging is important for medical diagnosis, drug development, tissue engineering, biomedical research, and continuous monitoring. Deep learning is a new and promising approach for predicting blood flow whenever the condition varies, but it comes with a high learning cost for real-world scenarios with a variable flow value derived from multi-exposure laser speckle contrast imaging (MECI) data. A generative adversarial network (GAN) is presented in this research for the reliable prediction of blood flows in diverse scenarios in MECI. Method We suggested a time-efficient approach using a low frame rate camera that can be used to predict blood flow in MECI data by using conditional GAN architecture. Our approach is implemented by extending our work to the entire flow as well as the specific region of interest (ROI) in the flow. Results Results show that conditional GAN exhibits improved generalization ability to predict blood flow in MECI when compared to classifications-based deep learning approaches with an accuracy of 98.5% with a relative mean error of 1.57% for the whole field and 7.53% for a specific ROI. Conclusion The conditional GAN is very effective in predicting blood flows in MECI, entirely or within ROI, compared with other deep learning approaches.