Significance: Spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI) is a quantitative imaging method to measure absorption and scattering of tissue, from which several chromophore concentrations (e.g., oxy-/deoxy-/meth-hemoglobin, melanin, and carotenoids) can be calculated. Employing a method to extract additional spectral bands from RGB components (that we named cross-channels), we designed a handheld SFDI device to account for these pigments, using low-cost, consumer-grade components for its implementation and characterization.

Aim: With only three broad spectral bands (red, green, blue, or RGB), consumer-grade devices are often too limited. We present a methodology to increase the number of spectral bands in SFDI devices that use RGB components without hardware modification.

Approach: We developed a compact low-cost RGB spectral imager using a color CMOS camera and LED-based mini projector. The components’ spectral properties were characterized and additional cross-channel bands were calculated. An alternative characterization procedure was also developed that makes use of low-cost equipment, and its results were compared. The device performance was evaluated by measurements on tissue-simulating optical phantoms and in-vivo tissue. The measurements were compared with another quantitative spectroscopy method: spatial frequency domain spectroscopy (SFDS).

Results: Out of six possible cross-channel bands, two were evaluated to be suitable for our application and were fully characterized (520  ±  20  nm; 556  ±  18  nm). The other four cross-channels presented a too low signal-to-noise ratio for this implementation. In estimating the optical properties of optical phantoms, the SFDI data have a strong linear correlation with the SFDS data (R²  =  0.987, RMSE  =  0.006 for μ_a, R²  =  0.994, RMSE  =  0.078 for μs′).

Conclusions: We extracted two additional spectral bands from a commercial RGB system at no cost. There was good agreement between our device and the research-grade SFDS system. The alternative characterization procedure we have presented allowed us to measure the spectral features of the system with an accuracy comparable to standard laboratory equipment.

Significance: Understanding how the valveless embryonic heart pumps blood is essential to elucidate biomechanical cues regulating cardiogenesis, which is important for the advancement of congenital heart defects research. However, methods capable of embryonic cardiac pumping analysis remain limited, and assessing this highly dynamic process in mammalian embryos is challenging. New approaches are critically needed to address this hurdle.

Aim: We report an imaging-based approach for functional assessment of localized pumping dynamics in the early tubular embryonic mouse heart.

Approach: Four-dimensional optical coherence tomography was used to obtain structural and Doppler hemodynamic imaging of the beating heart in live mouse embryos at embryonic day 9.25. The pumping assessment was performed based on the volumetric blood flow rate, flow resistance within the heart tube, and pressure gradient induced by heart wall movements. The relation between the blood flow, the pressure gradient, and the resistance to flow were evaluated through temporal analyses and Granger causality test.

Results: In the ventricles, our method revealed connections between the temporal profiles of pressure gradient and volumetric blood flow rate. Statistically significant causal relation from the pressure gradient to the blood flow was demonstrated. Our analysis also suggests that cardiac pumping in the early ventricles is a combination of suction and pushing. In contrast, in the outflow tract, where the conduction wave is slower than the blood flow, we did not find significant causal relation from pressure to flow, suggesting that, different from ventricular regions, the local active contraction of the outflow tract is unlikely to drive the flow in that region.

Conclusions: We present an imaging-based approach that enables localized assessment of pumping dynamics in the mouse tubular embryonic heart. This method creates a new opportunity for functional analysis of the pumping mechanism underlying the developing mammalian heart at early stages and could be useful for studying biomechanical changes in mutant embryonic hearts that model congenital heart defects.

Significance: The hallmarks of digital holographic microscopy (DHM) compared with other quantitative phase imaging (QPI) methods are high speed, accuracy, spatial resolution, temporal stability, and polarization-sensitivity (PS) capability. The above features make DHM suitable for real-time quantitative PS phase imaging in a broad number of biological applications aimed at understanding cell growth and dynamic changes occurring during physiological processes and/or in response to pharmaceutical agents.

Aim: The insertion of a Fresnel biprism (FB) in the image space of a light microscope potentially turns any commercial system into a DHM system enabling QPI with the five desired features in QPI simultaneously: high temporal sensitivity, high speed, high accuracy, high spatial resolution, and PS. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first FB-based DHM system providing these five features all together.

Approach: The performance of the proposed system was calibrated with a benchmark phase object. The PS capability has been verified by imaging human U87 glioblastoma cells.

Results: The proposed FB-based DHM system provides accurate phase images with high spatial resolution. The temporal stability of our system is in the order of a few nanometers, enabling live-cell studies. Finally, the distinctive behavior of the cells at different polarization angles (e.g., PS capability) can be observed with our system.

Conclusions: We have presented a method to turn any commercial light microscope with monochromatic illumination into a PS QPI system. The proposed system provides accurate quantitative PS phase images in a new, simple, compact, and cost-effective format, thanks to the low cost (a few hundred dollars) involved in implementing this simple architecture, enabling the use of this QPI technique accessible to most laboratories with standard light microscopes.

Significance: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a technique for detecting regional hemodynamic responses associated with neural activation in the cerebral cortex. The absorption changes due to hemodynamic changes in the scalp cause considerable signal contamination in the fNIRS measurement. A method for extracting hemodynamic changes in the cerebral tissue is required for reliable fNIRS measurement.

Aim: To exclusively detect cerebral functional hemodynamic changes, we developed an fNIRS technique using reflectance modulation of the scalp surface.

Approach: The theoretical feasibility of the proposed method was proven by a simulation calculation of light propagation. Its practical feasibility was evaluated by a phantom experiment and brain activation simulation mimicking human fNIRS experiments.

Results: The simulation calculation revealed that the partial path length of the scalp was changed by reflectance modulation of the scalp surface. The influence of absorption change in the superficial layer was successfully reduced by the proposed method, using only measurement data, in the phantom experiment. The proposed method was applicable to human experiments of standard designs, achieving statistical significance within an acceptable experimental time-frame.

Conclusions: Removal of the scalp hemodynamic effect by the proposed technique will increase the quality of fNIRS data, particularly in measurements in neonates and infants that typically would require a dense optode arrangement.