Apparatuses for noninvasive determination of in vivo alcohol concentration using raman spectroscopy
First Claim
1. An apparatus for the non-invasive in vivo determination of the concentration of alcohol, a substance of abuse, or both, in human tissue of an individual by Raman spectroscopy, comprising:
- (a) an illumination subsystem for generating excitation light,(b) a sampling subsystem for delivering the excitation light to a portion of the in vivo tissue and detecting light from the in vivo tissue, wherein the sampling subsystem comprises;
(b1) an optical input to receive the excitation light from the illumination subsystem,(b2) a sampling surface that forms a tissue interface to illuminate the tissue with the excitation light delivered from the optical input, and(b3) an optical output to collect the emitted light from the tissue and output the collected light to the spectrometer subsystem, wherein at least one of the optical input and the optical output comprises one or more optical fibers, wherein the optical input and the optical output comprise the same optical fibers;
(c) a spectrometer subsystem for determining a Raman spectrum from the detected light(d) a computing subsystem for correcting the measured Raman spectrum, and(e) a calibration subsystem for determining the relationship between the corrected Raman spectrum and the concentration of alcohol, a substance of abuse, or both.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatuses for the determination of an attribute of the tissue of an individual use non-invasive Raman spectroscopy. For example, the alcohol concentration in the blood or tissue of an individual can be determined non-invasively. A portion of the tissue is illuminated with light, the light propagates into the tissue where it is Raman scattered within the tissue. The Raman scattered light is then detected and can be combined with a model relating Raman spectra to alcohol concentration in order to determine the alcohol concentration in the blood or tissue of the individual. Correction techniques can be used to reduce determination errors due to detection of light other than that from Raman scattering from the alcohol in the tissue. Other biologic information can be used in combination with the Raman spectral properties to aid in the determination of alcohol concentration, for example age of the individual, height of the individual, weight of the individual, medical history of the individual and his/her family, ethnicity, skin melanin content, or a combination thereof. The method and apparatus can be highly optimized to provide reproducible and, preferably, uniform radiance of the tissue, low tissue sampling error, depth targeting of the tissue layers or sample locations that contain the attribute of interest, efficient collection of Raman spectra from the tissue, high optical throughput, high photometric accuracy, large dynamic range, excellent thermal stability, effective calibration maintenance, effective calibration transfer, built-in quality control, and ease-of-use.
172 Citations
26 Claims
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1. An apparatus for the non-invasive in vivo determination of the concentration of alcohol, a substance of abuse, or both, in human tissue of an individual by Raman spectroscopy, comprising:
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(a) an illumination subsystem for generating excitation light, (b) a sampling subsystem for delivering the excitation light to a portion of the in vivo tissue and detecting light from the in vivo tissue, wherein the sampling subsystem comprises; (b1) an optical input to receive the excitation light from the illumination subsystem, (b2) a sampling surface that forms a tissue interface to illuminate the tissue with the excitation light delivered from the optical input, and (b3) an optical output to collect the emitted light from the tissue and output the collected light to the spectrometer subsystem, wherein at least one of the optical input and the optical output comprises one or more optical fibers, wherein the optical input and the optical output comprise the same optical fibers; (c) a spectrometer subsystem for determining a Raman spectrum from the detected light (d) a computing subsystem for correcting the measured Raman spectrum, and (e) a calibration subsystem for determining the relationship between the corrected Raman spectrum and the concentration of alcohol, a substance of abuse, or both. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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14. The apparatus of claim wherein at least one of the optical input and the optical output comprises a light pipe, lens, or mirror.
Specification