Methods for laser speckle contrast imaging of blood perfusion

A method, the method comprising:

• directing a light beam at a blood-perfused target tissue;
• reflecting the directed light beam off of static target tissue and flowing cells;
• capturing a plurality of digital images of interference patterns of the reflected light in a plurality of successive frames (N);
• measuring, via a processor, a light intensity of at least one pixel of each digital image, wherein the at least one pixel corresponds to an identical pair of coordinates (x, y) in each successive frame, wherein Ii(x,y) is the light intensity of the at least one pixel (x, y) in a frame i, wherein the frame i corresponds to i=1, 2, . . . N;
• comparing the measured light intensity of the at least one pixel (x, y) of each digital image to the measured light intensity of the at least one pixel (x, y) of an adjacent frame at the identical pair of coordinates (x, y) thereby enhancing a light saturation profile for the at least one pixel of each frame;
• and
• determining, via the processor, a compiled light intensity for the at least one pixel (x, y) for an aggregate motion contrast image based upon the enhanced light saturation profile of the at least one pixel (x, y) for each frame.