ABSTRACT
Blood is an important component of living organism which is responsible for material transportation. The microenvironment of blood flow plays an important role in physiological and pathological processes of angiogenesis and cardiac development, erythrocytes aggregation and blood viscosity, tumor metastasis and atherosclerosis. Besides, micro-fluid environment significantly affects drug delivery, cell screening, and artificial organ design. Thus, the measurement and quantitative analysis of micro-fluid contribute to the biomedical engineering filed. Micro-particle imaging velocimetry (Micro-PIV) combines conventional PIV with microscopy technique. Correlation analysis is conducted in two groups of images captured by high speed camera at different time intervals, and the velocity profiles in micro-fluid environment are successfully measured. Compared with other velocity measurement methods, Micro-PIV has high temporal resolution and spatial resolution. The main setup of Micro-PIV and its principle analysis method were introduced in this review. Recent studies of Micro-PIV applications in biomedical engineering field were then summarized. Moreover, the drawbacks of Micro-PIV technique and prospect of its applications were discussed.