LASER INDUCED FLUORESCENCE OF SKIN: SUPERPOSITION OF SPECTRAL INTENSITIES

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Medical Diagnostics
• Spectroscopy

Background:

• Assessing human health status non-invasively is crucial for early disease detection and management.
• Optical spectroscopy offers a promising avenue for real-time physiological monitoring.
• Existing methods may lack the sensitivity or real-time capabilities for comprehensive health assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the potential of optical spectroscopy, specifically Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF), for assessing human health.
• To investigate the differences in LIF spectra between healthy individuals and those with specific pathologies.
• To explore the feasibility of real-time health monitoring using skin and nail fluorescence.

Main Methods:

• Development of a specialized probe for recording differential Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) spectra.
• In vivo measurement of LIF intensities from the human finger pad and nail.
• Comparative analysis of spectral fluorescence lines from different volunteers.

Main Results:

• Significant differences were observed in LIF spectra between physiologically healthy volunteers and those with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
• The analysis of LIF spectra allows for the assessment of pathology severity.
• Experimentally recorded fluorescence spectra were found to be a superposition of other spectra, consistent with a multilayer skin model involving common chromophores.

Conclusions:

• Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy of skin and nail is a viable method for assessing human health status.
• LIF spectroscopy can differentiate between healthy and pathological conditions, such as diabetes, and quantify disease severity.
• The findings support the use of LIF for non-invasive, real-time health monitoring.