Near-Infrared Temperature Measurement Technique for Water Surrounding an Induction-heated Small Magnetic Sphere

A technique to measure the temperature of water and non-turbid aqueous media surrounding an induction-heated small magnetic sphere is presented. This ...

The university of Electro-Communications

The University of Electro-Communications

We propose a new method for reconstruction of emitting source distributions by use of a spatial filter and a successive updating process of the forward model for fluorescence/bioluminescence diffuse optical tomography. The spatial filter transforms a set of the measurement data to a single source strength at a position of interest, and the forward model is updated by use of the estimated source strengths. This updating process ignores the dispensable source positions from reconstruction according to the reconstructed source distribution, and the spatial resolution of the reconstructed image is improved. The estimated sources are also used for the reduction of artifacts induced by noises based on the singular value decomposition. Some numerical experiments show the advantages of the proposed method by comparing the present results with those obtained by the conventional methods of the least squares method nd Algebraic Reconstruction Technique. Finally the criteria for practical use of the method are quantitatively presented by the simulations for 2D and 3D geometries.

Reconstruction of fluorescence/bioluminescence sources in biological medium with spatial filter.

An l(p) (0 < p ≤ 1) sparsity regularization is applied to time-domain diffuse optical tomography with a gradient-based nonlinear optimization scheme to improve the spatial resolution and the robustness to noise. The expression of the l(p) sparsity regularization is reformulated as a differentiable function of a parameter to avoid the difficulty in calculating its gradient in the optimization process. The regularization parameter is selected by the L-curve method. Numerical experiments show that the l(p) sparsity regularization improves the spatial resolution and recovers the difference in the absorption coefficients between two targets, although a target with a small absorption coefficient may disappear due to the strong effect of the l(p) sparsity regularization when the value of p is too small. The l(p) sparsity regularization with small p values strongly localizes the target, and the reconstructed region of the target becomes smaller as the value of p decreases. A phantom experiment validates the numerical simulations.

Improvement of image quality of time-domain diffuse optical tomography with l sparsity regularization.

The present study was aimed to characterize 3-dimensional (3D) morphology of the cortical microvasculature (e.g., penetrating artery and emerging vein), using two-photon microscopy and automated analysis for their cross-sectional diameters and branching positions in the mouse cortex. We observed that both artery and vein had variable cross-sectional diameters across cortical depths. The mean diameter was similar for both artery (17 ± 5 μm) and vein (15 ± 5 μm), and there were no detectable differences over depths of 50-400 μm. On the other hand, the number of branches was slightly increased up to 400-μm depth for both the artery and vein. The mean number of branches per 0.1 mm vessel length was 1.7 ± 1.2 and 3.8 ± 1.6 for the artery and vein, respectively. This method allows for quantification of the large volume data of microvascular images captured with two-photon microscopy. This will contribute to the morphometric analysis of the cortical microvasculature in functioning brains. 

Automated image analysis for diameters and branching points of cerebral penetrating arteries and veins captured with two-photon microscopy.

The present study examined glucose transfer in the cellular scale of mouse brain microvasculature in vivo using two-photon microscopy and fluorescent glucose analogue (2-NBDG). The 2-NBDG was intravenously injected (0.04 mL/min) in the anesthetized Tie2-GFP mice in which the vascular endothelium expressed fluorescent protein. Time-lapse imaging was conducted on the cortical parenchyma, while the time-intensity change of the injected 2-NBDG was analysed in respective vascular compartments (artery, capillary, and vein). We observed that 2-NBDG signal increased monotonically in the vasculature during the period of the injection, and rapidly declined following its cessation. In tissue compartment, however, the signal intensity gradually increased even after cessation of the injection. Spatiotemporal analysis of the 2-NBDG intensity over the cross-sections of the vessels further showed distinct change of the 2-NBDG intensity across the vessel wall (endothelium), which may represents a regulation site of tissue glucose influx. 

Vessel specific imaging of glucose transfer with fluorescent glucose analogue in anesthetized mouse cortex.

Fluorescence diffuse optical tomography using a multi-view continuous-wave and non-contact measurement system and an algorithm incorporating the lp (0 < p ≤ 1) sparsity regularization reconstructs a localized fluorescent target in a small animal. The measurement system provides a total of 25 fluorescence surface 2D-images of an object, which are acquired by a CCD camera from five different angles of view with excitation from five different angles. Fluorescence surface emissions from five different angles of view are simultaneously imaged on the CCD sensor, thus leading to fast acquisition of the 25 images within three minutes. The distributions of the fluorophore are reconstructed by solving the inverse problem based on the photon diffusion equations. In the reconstruction process incorporating the lp sparsity regularization, the regularization term is reformulated as a differentiable function for gradient-based non-linear optimization. Numerical simulations and phantom experiments show that the use of the lp sparsity regularization improves the localization of the target and quantitativeness of the fluorophore concentration. A mouse experiment demonstrates that a localized fluorescent target in a mouse is successfully reconstructed. 

Reconstruction of localized fluorescent target from multi-view continuous-wave surface images of small animal with lp sparsity regularization.

A noninvasive measurement method is proposed and examined to continuously predict blood glucose contents using near-infrared diffuse reflection difference spectra measured at the skin tissue without using multivariate analyses. Using the modified Beer’s law, the difference spectra are assumed to be synthesized from four major components in the human skin (water, protein, glucose, and fat) and a scattering equivalent component called baseline. As a result, one of the origins of the errors in blood glucose prediction using near-infrared is found to be the similarity of the shapes of the absorption spectrum between glucose and baseline. After separating the glucose contributions from the difference spectra at the characteristic wavelengths of baseline and fat, an imaginary component combining baseline and fat is introduced by considering that both the change in the fat contribution and the generation of baseline originate from the change in scattering in the skin. The imaginary component enables us to reduce the errors in blood glucose prediction. In contrast to the methods using multivariate analyses, the calculation process of the blood glucose contents from the measured reflection spectra is clear in this method, thus, it is easy to estimate the origins of the changes and contributions of the components in the measured difference spectra. The proposed method may become a useful tool for realization of noninvasive blood glucose prediction using near-infrared spectroscopy.

Near-infrared noninvasive blood glucose prediction without using multivariate analyses: introduction of imaginary spectra due to scattering change in the skin.

Yukio Yamada

Brain Science Inspired Life Support Research Center

The university of Electro-Communications

Near-Infrared Temperature Measurement Technique for Water Surrounding an Induction-heated Small Magnetic Sphere

Yukio Yamada

.css-o250i3{font-size:18px;font-family:Open Sans,sans-serif;line-height:21.6px;}Brain Science Inspired Life Support Research Center

The university of Electro-Communications

Near-Infrared Temperature Measurement Technique for Water Surrounding an Induction-heated Small Magnetic Sphere

Brain Science Inspired Life Support Research Center