We have developed a miniaturized silicon photonics short-wave infrared spectrophotometer that fits in a wrist-based wearable device. Our device has the capability for non-invasive and real-time measurement of various physiologic biochemistries that cannot be interrogated with the same accuracy when using light emitting diodes (LEDs) and common photoplethysmography (PPG) applications. By producing many discrete and individually addressable laser diodes on a single photonics integrated circuit together with wavelength multiplexing and on-chip wavelength and power monitoring, our platform enables novel commercial applications, including the ability to sense hydration status, core body temperature, alcohol consumption, lactate threshold, and glucose levels.
Previous works investigated a spectroscopic technique that offered a promising alternative to blood and breath assays for determining in vivo alcohol concentration. Although these prior works measured the dorsal forearm, we report the results of a 26-subject clinical study designed to evaluate the spectroscopic technique at a finger measurement site through comparison to contemporaneous forearm spectroscopic, venous blood, and breath measurements. Through both Monte Carlo simulation and experimental data, it is shown that tissue optical probe design has a substantial impact on the effective path-length of photons through the skin and the signal-to-noise ratio of the spectroscopic measurements. Comparison of the breath, blood, and tissue assays demonstrated significant differences in alcohol concentration that are attributable to both assay accuracy and alcohol pharmacokinetics. Similar to past works, a first order kinetic model is used to estimate the fraction of concentration variance explained by alcohol pharmacokinetics (72.6-86.7%). A significant outcome of this work was significantly improved pharmacokinetic agreement with breath (arterial) alcohol of the finger measurement (mean kArt-Fin = 0.111 min−1) relative to the forearm measurement (mean kArt-For = 0.019 min−1) that is likely due to the increased blood perfusion of the finger.
Alcohol testing is an expanding area of interest due to the impacts of alcohol abuse that extend well beyond drunk driving. However, existing approaches such as blood and urine assays are hampered in some testing environments by biohazard risks. A noninvasive, in vivo spectroscopic technique offers a promising alternative, as no body fluids are required. The purpose of this work is to report the results of a 36-subject clinical study designed to characterize tissue alcohol measured using near-infrared spectroscopy relative to venous blood, capillary blood, and breath alcohol. Comparison of blood and breath alcohol concentrations demonstrated significant differences in alcohol concentration [root mean square of 9.0 to 13.5 mg/dL] that were attributable to both assay accuracy and precision as well as alcohol pharmacokinetics. A first-order kinetic model was used to estimate the contribution of alcohol pharmacokinetics to the differences in concentration observed between the blood, breath, and tissue assays. All pair-wise combinations of alcohol assays were investigated, and the fraction of the alcohol concentration variance explained by pharmacokinetics ranged from 41.0% to 83.5%. Accounting for pharmacokinetic concentration differences, the accuracy and precision of the spectroscopic tissue assay were found to be comparable to those of the blood and breath assays.
A practical limitation encountered in alcohol research is the relatively small number of body compartments (e.g. blood,
liver, tissue) that can be directly interrogated. In this work, an NIR spectroscopic device was investigated that provided a
direct measurement of alcohol concentration in skin tissue (interstitial fluid). This work is intended to characterize the
relationship of forearm interstitial fluid alcohol concentration relative to capillary blood using a first order kinetic model.
Concurrent blood and tissue alcohol concentrations were collected on 101 test subjects while consuming alcohol.
Estimates of the first order kinetic rate constant were calculated for each of the subjects. It is hoped that this
characterization will lead to further improvements in optical based alcohol monitors for impairment detection.
Recent studies have shown spray cooling of the skin surface with millisecond cryogen spurts to be an effective method for protecting the epidermis from non-specific thermal injury during various laser mediated dermatological procedures. We have investigated the effects of ambient humidity level, spraying distance, and cryogen boiling point on the resulting radiometric surface temperature. Our findings indicate that: (1) decreasing the ambient humidity level results in less ice formation on the skin surface without altering the radiometric surface temperature during a cryogen spurt; (2) increasing the spraying distance to 85 mm lowers the radiometric surface temperature; and (3) boiling point of the cryogen does not directly affect the surface temperature in the geometries studied.
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