Detection and Monitoring of Microparticles Under Skin by Optical Coherence Tomography as an Approach to Continuous Glucose Sensing Using Implanted Retroreflectors

Abstract

We demonstrate the feasibility of using optical coherence tomography (OCT) to image and detect 2.8 ?m diameter microparticles (stationary and moving) on a highly-reflective gold surface both in clear media and under skin in vitro. The OCT intensity signal can clearly report the microparticle count, and the OCT response to the number of microparticles shows a good linearity. The detect ability of the intensity change (2.9%�5%) caused by an individual microparticle shows the high sensitivity of monitoring multiple particles using OCT. An optical sensing method based on this feasibility study is described for continuously measuring blood sugar levels in the subcutaneous tissue, and a molecular recognition unit is designed using competitive binding to modulate the number of bound microparticles as a function of glucose concentration. With further development, an ultra-small, implantable sensor might provide high specificity and sensitivity for long-term continuous monitoring of blood glucose concentration.

Description

Keywords

biochemistry, biomedical equipment, biomedical optical imaging, blood, chemical sensors, gold, optical sensors, optical tomography, patient monitoring, retroreflectors, skin, sugar

Citation

Copyright 2013 IEEE Sensors Journal. This is a post-print version of a publshed article that is available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6544228/. Recommended citation: Wang, Shang, Tim Sherlock, Betsy Salazar, Narendran Sudheendran, Ravi Kiran Manapuram, Katerina Kourentzi, Paul Ruchhoeft, Richard C. Willson, and Kirill V. Larin. "Detection and monitoring of microparticles under skin by optical coherence tomography as an approach to continuous glucose sensing using implanted retroreflectors." IEEE sensors journal 13, no. 11 (2013): 4534-454 DOI : 10.1109/JSEN.2013.2270008. This item has been deposited in accordance with the publisher copyright and licensing terms and with the auhor's permission.