Method and device for contactless temperature monitoring and temperature adjustment

• US 7,357,570 B2
• Filed: 01/11/2004
• Issued: 04/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Medizinisches Laserzentrum Lübeck GmbH
• Original Assignee: Medizinisches Laserzentrum Lübeck GmbH
• Inventors: Schuele, Georg
• Primary Examiner(s): Verbitsky; Gail
• Application Number:
  US10/542,298
• Publication Number:
  US 20060233216A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,556 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 374/120
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0066 Optical coherence imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2009/00851 Optical coherence topography [OCT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2009/00863 Retina
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 9/008 using laser
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2005/583 Interferences, i.e. fringe variation with temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0022 for sensing the radiation of moving bodies
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0025 Living bodies ear thermometers G01J5/0011; detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/58 using absorption; using extinction effect

Abstract

A method and device for determining the temperature of a sample, wherein a probing light beam is directed onto the sample whereby at least two partial beams of the probing light pass through paths of different lengths inside the sample by backscattering or reflecting the beams from at least two different depths in the sample, returning the partial beams to an analysis unit, and producing an interference pattern in the analysis unit by means of an interferometric device which uses one light beam as a reference for evaluating the interference pattern in an evaluating unit, wherein the signal intensity of the partial beam is determined counter to the optical path and the temperature displacement and temperature of the sample are determined by the temperature adjustment of the signal intensity.

Claims

1. A method for determining the temperature of a biological sample, the method comprising:

a) directing a probing light beam onto the sample, at least two partial beams of the probing light beam passing through at least two separate long path lengths in the sample, the at least two partial beams reflected or backscattered from at least two different depths in the sample;

b) employing an interferometric device and one beam of the probing light beam as a reference light beam to produce an interference pattern in an analytical unit;

c) directing the interference pattern to an evaluating unit;

d) evaluating the interference pattern in the evaluating unit by comparing a signal intensity of the reflected or backscattered partial beams with an optical path length in the evaluating unit to determine a temperature displacement and a sample temperature from the temperature displacement of the signal intensity.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the probing light beam is directed onto a biological tissue.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the probing light beam is directed onto a retina of an eye.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the employed probing light is laser induced.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the probing light beam is a short coherence length light split into a reference beam and a sample beam with a dichroic mirror.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein a group refractive index of the sample is determined in the evaluating unit by evaluating the interference pattern and determining a different spectral distribution of the partial beams of the probing light beam.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation of the interference pattern takes place by a parameter extraction from a computer-assisted simulation of a measurement by comparing a simulated and a measured interference pattern.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein calibrating the evaluating unit is carried out at time t¹ by a reference measurement at a known temperature.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the probing light beam is directed onto an aqueous solution sample.