Assessment of nasal mucose blood supply by quantitative endoscopic imagingof back-scattered light

In this article we present a method for the objective assessment and monito ring of tissue blood supply using a specially developed endoscopic imaging calorimeter that enables quantitative color modeling of the back-scattered light during endoscopic examination. Tissue blood volume changes in the nas al mucosa, induced by xylometazoline hydrochloride nasal spray, were evalua ted with this method. It was found that quantitative imaging provides sensi tive, reproducible, and reliable means for the monitoring and mapping of ti ssue blood supply and is easy to use routinely. The results showed that sat uration decreases with time, being the most sensitive color parameter to th e vasoconstriction procedure. It appears that objective indexes for optical tissue characterization and analysis may be promising in the understanding of the pathophysiology of tissue changes and in the objective evaluation o f their response to different therapeutic schemes.