Development of an autonomic portable single-board computer based high resolution NIRS device for microcirculation...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Physiological Measurement
• Optical Sensing

Background:

• Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) is a key non-invasive method for assessing biological tissue metabolism.
• Existing NIRS devices can be limited by portability and resolution for real-time monitoring.
• Quantifying metabolic changes in microcirculation requires high-resolution, adaptable instrumentation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and develop a portable, high-resolution NIRS device.
• To enable autonomic, single-board computer-based metabolic monitoring.
• To validate the device's performance in ambulatory settings.

Main Methods:

• Development of a sensor-patch with 8 LEDs and 2 photodetectors for 8-channel data acquisition.
• Utilized a 16-bit ADC, LED driver, and programmable gain amplifiers for data acquisition at ~2Hz.
• Integrated Advantech's PCM-3355L SBC (Windows XP) with custom Visual Basic 6.0 and C++ 6.0 software.
• Implemented an auto-calibration feature to adjust LED output intensity based on experimental conditions.

Main Results:

• The developed NIRS device offers high resolution for monitoring microcirculatory activity.
• The system demonstrated adequate performance and reliability during measurements on resting and working muscles.
• Auto-calibration successfully adapted LED intensity to varying tissue properties and configurations.

Conclusions:

• The portable, auto-calibrating NIRS device provides a reliable tool for non-invasive metabolic monitoring.
• This technology facilitates high-resolution tissue analysis in ambulatory and diverse experimental conditions.
• The system's design enhances the practical application of NIRS in physiological research.