Optoacoustic monitoring of blood oxygenation
AssigneeThe University of Texas System
InventorsRinat O. Esenaliev, Massoud Motamedi, Donald S. Prough, Alexander A. Oraevsky
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Abstract
An optoacoustic apparatus is disclosed which includes a radiation source of pulsed radiation and a probe having a front face to be placed in close proximity to or in contact with a tissue site of an animal body. The probe further includes a plurality of optical fibers terminating at the surface of the front face of the probe and connected at their other end to a pulsed laser. The front face of the probe also has mounted therein or thereon a transducer for detecting an acoustic response from blood in the tissue site to the radiation pulses connected to a processing unit which converts the transducer signal into a measure of venous blood oxygenation.
Claims25
An optoacoustic apparatus comprising:
- a pulsed laser;
- an optical delivery system connected to an output of the pulsed laser and adapted to deliver pulsed radiation to a target site of an animal including a human;
- and
- an acoustic sensing system adapted to be placed in close proximity to or in contact with the target site and to receive an acoustic signal induced in the target site by the pulsed radiation, where the acoustic signal is time resolved and a slope of the time resolved acoustic signal represents a quantitative measure of blood oxygenation in the target site and changes in an amplitude of the time-resolved acoustic signal represents a measure of changes in blood oxygenation in the target site.
A probe including a front face having mounted thereon a transducer connected to an output cable and a plurality of optical fibers terminating at or in the front face, where light from a radiation source sent down the fibers exits the probe at the face and enters a tissue site of an animal including a human causing an acoustic response which is detected by the transducer causing the transducer to generate a time resolved output signal, where a slope of the time resolved data output signal represents a quantitative measure of blood oxygenation and changes in an amplitude of the time-resolved output signal represents a measure of changes in blood oxygenation in the target site.
An optoacoustic apparatus comprising:
- a first pulsed radiation source;
- a first fiber-optics delivery system including a first plurality of optical fibers, where the system is connected to an output of the first radiation source at its proximal end;
- a probe including a face having a transducer mounted therein and adapted to receive the first fiber-optics delivery system, where distal ends of the first plurality of optical fibers terminate at or near the face of the probe;
- a transducer cable connected, at its proximal end, to the transducer and adapted to supply power to the transducer and carry a transducer output signal from the transducer;
- and
- a digital processing unit connected to a distal end of the transducer cable adapted to time resolve the transducer output signal and to convert a slope of the time resolved transducer output signal into a quantitative measure of blood oxygenation and to convert changes in an amplitude of the time-resolved transducer output signal into a measure of changes in blood oxygenation in the target site.
A probe including a front face having mounted thereon a transducer connected to an output cable that exits a back portion of the probe, a first and second plurality of optical fibers terminating at or in the front face of the probe, where light from a first radiation source sent down the first plurality fibers and light from a second radiation source sent down the second plurality of fibers and exit the probe at the face and enters a tissue of an animal including a human causing a time resolved acoustic response which causes the transducer to generate an output signal, where a slope of the time resolved data output signal represents a quantitative measure of blood oxygenation and changes in an amplitude of the time-resolved output signal represents a measure of changes in blood oxygenation in the target site.
A method for measuring blood oxygenation comprising the steps of:
- directing radiation pulses from a pulsed radiation source into a target site of an animal including a human;
- receiving acoustic or pressure waves induced in the target site by the pulsed radiation;
- generating an output signal corresponding to the received acoustic waves, where a slope of the output signal is linearly related to blood oxygenation and changes in the amplitude of the output signal is linearly related to changes in blood oxygenation;
- and
- converting the output signal into a measure of blood oxygenation and changes in blood oxygenation in the target site.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.