Inspection of skin hemodynamics with hyperspectral camera.

Using hyperspectral imaging techniques, which enable us to simultaneously obtain spatial and wavelength information, we have improved upon the newly developed hyperspectral camera to develop a method of observing changes in skin melanin levels and hemodynamics over time. As an evaluation of this method, we measured the skin diffuse reflectance spectrum of the human middle finger in an experiment of blood flow blockage in the brachial region. The changes in skin hemodynamics observed through this method match the behavior expected based on clinical knowledge, and also show an extremely high correlation with results obtained by the Erythema Index, which is used to make similar calculations from a limited number of wavelengths.