title: Human skull translucency: post mortem studies.
abstract: Measurements of optical translucency of human skulls were carried out. An incandescent light source and a CCD camera were used to measure the distribution of light transmitted through the skull in 10 subjects post-mortem. We noticed that intra-individual differences in optical translucency may be up to 100 times but inter-individual translucency differences across the skull reach 105times. Based on the measurement results, a "theoretical" experiment was simulated. Monte-Carlo calculations were used in order to evaluate the influence of the differences in optical translucency of the skull on results of NIRS measurements. In these calculations a functional stimulation was done, in which the oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin concentrations in the brain cortex change by 5μM and -5μM respectively. The maximal discrepancies between assumed hemoglobin concentration changes and hemoglobin concentration changes estimated with Monte-Carlo simulation may reach 50% depending of the translucency of the skull.
authors.affiliation: Nalecz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sawosz
authors.affiliation: Nalecz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wojtkiewicz
authors.affiliation: Nalecz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kacprzak
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Sciences/Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Uppsala University, Akademiska Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Weigl
authors.affiliation: Forensic Medicine Department, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borowska-Solonynko
authors.affiliation: Forensic Medicine Department, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Krajewski
authors.affiliation: Nalecz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bejm
authors.affiliation: Nalecz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Milej
authors.affiliation: Department of Descriptive and Clinical Anatomy, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ciszek
authors.affiliation: Nalecz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maniewski
authors.affiliation: Nalecz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liebert
keywords: (170.0170) Medical optics and biotechnology; (170.6930) Tissue