Dialysis-assisted fiber optic spectroscopy for in situ biomedical sensing.
A miniature fiber optic spectrometer enclosed within a semipermeable (dialysis) membrane is proposed for in vivo interstitial sensing applications. The semipermeable membrane acts as a molecular filter, allowing only small molecules to pass through to the sampling volume. This filtering, in principle, should enable continuous in vivo drug sensing, removing the necessity for complex microdialysis systems. We use a biological phantom to examine the reliable detection of a fluorescence signal from small dye molecules in the presence of large fluorophores and scatterers. We find that spectral artefacts arising from scatterers and large fluorophores are substantially suppressed, simplifying the spectral analysis. In addition, the measured sampling rate of 157 s is superior to existing in vivo tissue assaying techniques such as microdialysis, which can take tens of minutes.
Blazkiewicz
P
P
The University of Queensland, School of Physical Sciences, Centre for Biophotonics and Laser Science, St. Lucia QLD 4072 Australia. blazkie@physics.uq.edu.au
Blazkiewicz
K
K
Verhaege
A
A
Anissimov
Y G
YG
Roberts
M S
MS
Zvyagin
A V
AV
D001698:Biomedical Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D017551:Microdialysis / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D055100:Optical Fibers; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods