{"id":6605,"date":"2024-05-01T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T13:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/?p=6605"},"modified":"2026-10-16T14:00:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T18:00:55","slug":"roblyer-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/2024\/05\/01\/roblyer-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Speckle Contrast Optical Spectroscopy for Cuffless Blood Pressure Measurements"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Mentors<\/h3>\n\n\t<ul class=\"profile-listing profile-format-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-advanced has-title post-5842 profile type-profile status-publish hentry departments-bme departments-ece affiliation-faculty program-year-yr-2015 program-year-yr-2023 program-year-yr-2024 program-year-187\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/profile\/darren-roblyer\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-advanced\"><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/04\/BME-Roblyer-Darren-1225-SQ-600x600-1-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-advanced\">Darren Roblyer<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-advanced\">Professor, (BME, ECE); Graduate Chair (BME)<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-advanced has-title post-6767 profile type-profile status-publish hentry departments-bme affiliation-graduate-student program-year-yr-2024\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/profile\/ariane-garrett\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-advanced\"><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/04\/ariane_garrett.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-advanced\">Ariane Garrett<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-advanced\">PhD Candidate<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\n<h3 style=\"margin-top: 0;\">Project Description<\/h3>\n<p>Hypertension affects more than half of all adults in the United States, but one in five adults with hypertension remain undiagnosed. The current gold standard for non-invasive blood pressure estimation is the cuff-based sphygmomanometer, which can only provide discrete, intermittent measurements of blood pressure.<\/p>\n<p>Continuous, cuff-less blood pressure measurements would enable blood pressure measurements outside of the clinic during daily life, which can provide a more accurate assessment of blood pressure. Speckle contrast optical spectroscopy (SCOS) is a technique that utilizes long coherence lasers to measure relative blood flow changes in tissue. When speckle images are acquired at a sufficient frame rate, blood flow and volume changes within each cardiac pulse can be resolved.<\/p>\n<p>We have previously shown that SCOS improves cuffless blood pressure estimation. This project will focus on continuing the development of our SCOS device.<\/p>\n<div class=\" bu-callout alignright\"><\/p>\n<h3>Research Participant<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>Program: PURSuE REU<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/05\/20240731_REU-Lab-Headshots-Evan-Square.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"424\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5958 alignnone\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span data-sheets-root=\"1\"><b>Evan Biller<\/b><\/span>, Research Experiences for Undergraduates.<br \/>\n<a href='https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/2024\/09\/25\/evan-biller\/' class='button button'>Learn More<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"bu_collapsible_container \" aria-live=\"polite\" data-customize-animation=\"false\"><h3 class=\"bu_collapsible\" aria-expanded=\"false\"tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\">Research Goals<\/h3><div class=\"bu_collapsible_section\" style=\"display: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>The overall research goal of this project is to improve the SCOS device and blood pressure estimation using the device.<\/li>\n<li>First, we will aim to determine the ideal source detector separation for the SCOS device. Previously, we have only acquired measurements at a single source detector separation. However, changing the source detector separation will lead to different tissue sampling depths and may change the morphology of the blood flow waveforms in each cardiac cycle.<\/li>\n<li>We will test different source detector separations and analyze how this parameter affects the performance of SCOS for BP estimation.<\/li>\n<li>In addition, we aim to determine how positioning of the arm relative to the heart during SCOS measurements affects blood pressure estimation.<\/li>\n<li>Lastly, we aim to acquire and analyze SCOS and blood pressure measurements on healthy volunteers.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"bu_collapsible_container \" aria-live=\"polite\" data-customize-animation=\"false\"><h3 class=\"bu_collapsible\" aria-expanded=\"false\"tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\">Learning Goals<\/h3><div class=\"bu_collapsible_section\" style=\"display: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>The learning goals of this project are to gain an understanding of basic biomedical optics principles, and specifically understand the theory and principles of speckle contrast optical spectroscopy.<\/li>\n<li>Throughout this project, the student will plan and execute an experiment to acquire SCOS measurements at different source detector separations\/positons, which will involve both designing the fiber holders to execute the experiment, collecting data, and analyzing the collected data.<\/li>\n<li>The student will gain Matlab\/Python programming skills and learn how to analyze speckle images and time series signals.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Timeline<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 1-2:<\/strong><\/span> Learn about the fundamentals of speckle contrast optical spectroscopy, our device, and basic biomedical optics principles. Design an experiment for acquiring SCOS measurements at different source detector separations.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 3-4:<\/strong><\/span> Prepare for experiment (designing and 3D printing fiber holders, create analysis plan, etc). Acquire initial measurements.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 5-6:<\/strong><\/span> Collect SCOS measurements at different source detector separations and positions. Develop data analysis codes.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 7-8:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Continue data collection and analysis, present preliminary results.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Week 9-10:<\/strong><\/span> Conclude data analysis, make research poster, and present findings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mentors Project Description Hypertension affects more than half of all adults in the United States, but one in five adults with hypertension remain undiagnosed. The current gold standard for non-invasive blood pressure estimation is the cuff-based sphygmomanometer, which can only provide discrete, intermittent measurements of blood pressure. Continuous, cuff-less blood pressure measurements would enable blood [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22960,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[118],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22960"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6605"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11652,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6605\/revisions\/11652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}