Skin color independent robust assessment of capillary refill time

TL;DR

This study presents a robust, skin color-independent system for measuring capillary refill time using simple imaging techniques, improving repeatability and reliability across diverse skin tones, with potential for smartphone-based applications.

Contribution

Developed a novel imaging system with polarizers and exponential regression to accurately measure CRT regardless of skin color, addressing previous limitations.

Findings

High repeatability across all skin phototypes.

Approximately 80% of measurements within ±20% of expected CRT.

System effective in flagging and discarding faulty measurements.

Abstract

Capillary refill time (CRT) is a method for evaluating peripheral perfusion by visual assessment. CRT is especially useful for quick evaluations in the absence of sophisticated equipment. However, there are repeatability and reproducibility limitations with CRT, especially for dark skin. To test the limits of CRT repeatability and skin color independence, we developed a system and method to perform simple and robust CRT measurements. The system consists of an RGB camera and an LED lamp, with crossed circular polarizers imaging to attenuate the light reflected by the superficial layer of the skin. The capillary refill time is determined using an exponential regression on the time-dependent green channel mean pixel intensity of the region of interest after the compression is released. We limited this regression up to a data-dependent cut-off time, after which we assume the exponential model is invalid, and used the confidence interval of the uncertainty to develop a criterion to flag and discard faulty measurements. We tested the system on twenty-two volunteers with skin phototypes ranging from I to VI on the Fitzpatrick scale, applying to their forearms a 7 kPa compression for 5 s. After the release of measurements flagged as inadequate (about 20\% of measurements) by our regressions, our results indicated good precision, with high repeatability for all skin phototypes. Approximately 80\% of measurements fall within $\pm 20\%$ of the individual's expected value for CRT (mean CRT value). Our results suggest CRT can be used as a quantitative measurement and encourages further developments for the implementation of a similar method on smartphone cameras for quick and robust CRT measurements in patients' triage, monitoring, and telehealth.