Surface-Enhanced Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy in Tissue

One aim of personalized medicine is to use continuous or on-demand monitoring of metabolites to adjust prescription dosages in real time. Surface-enhanced spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SESORS) is an optical technique capable of detecting surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-active targets under a barrier, which may enable frequent metabolite monitoring. Here we investigate how the intensity of the signal from SERS-active material varies spatially through tissue, both experimentally and in a computational model. Implant-sized, SERS-active hydrogel was placed under different thicknesses of contiguous tissue. Emission spectra were collected at the air-tissue boundary over a range of offsets from the excitation site. New features were added to the Monte Carlo light-tissue interaction model to modify the optical properties after inelastic scattering and to calculate the distribution of photons as they exit the model. The Raman signals were detectable through all barrier thicknesses, with strongest emission for the case of 0 mm offset between the excitation and detector. A steep decline in the signal intensities occurred for offsets greater than 2 mm. These results did not match published SORS work (where targets were much larger than an implant). However, the model and experimental results agree in showing the greatest intensities at 0 mm offset and a steep gradient in the intensities with increasing offset. Also, the model showed an increase in the number of photons when the new, longer wavelengths were used following the Stokes shift for scattering and the graphical display of the exiting photons was helpful in the determination and confirmation of the optimal offset.