Thursday, 26 September 2013

Optical Brain Imaging: A new approach in Biomedical Engineering



In the area of neuroscience research the brain tomography (mental imagery) is most popular technique, and has been helpful for the study of interior picturing of the body. In yore time, to find the images of brain peoples have to suffer with various effort, but now the new solution to find the images inside the brain is ‘Optical Brain imaging’ .The ability to obtaining the pictures of brain is possible because of observing the intensity changes in back scattered light, called intrinsic optical signals (IOS) that corresponds to fluctuations in blood oxygenation and volume associated with neural activity.
The field of biomedical imaging of the brain has experienced rapid growth now-a-days. These developments have been fuelled by the advances in electronics and improved computation which revolutionized the practice of diagnostic radiology, resulting in substantial improvement in clinical application. So we can say that by the help of other engineering branches like electronics and computer science, this luminous and enormous field of medical has been fruitful.
Actually, the brain is the most important part of the body which is responsible for all of the activities. Hence the examination and diagnosis of brain is very important and to see the functioning of the brain the pictures of the images are required. There are   so many ways by which one can find the images of the brain. But some of them are costly, huge and the most important is picture quality that is not clear. The EEG (electro encephalography) and MEG (magneto encephalography) approaches have problems in estimating the spatial position of the activation. Size, cost and the difficulties involved in measuring in the bore of a magnet limit the use of MRI to specific research applications in functional studies. The solution of these problems is ‘Optical Brain Imaging”.
The Optical Brain Imaging (NIRS-Near Infrared) technique has proved to be extremely successful in monitoring the physiological variability in the analytical responses, with a reasonable spatial resolution. The method relies on measuring the oxygen-dependant changes in the absorption spectrum of haemoglobin to measure cerebral haemo dynamics and oxygenation changes. The relatively low absorption of near infrared light (650-950 nm) in biological tissue allows the non-ionizing light to penetrate through the skin and skull and hence to sample the brain tissue under, enabling in vivo monitoring of brain tissue. The Hitachi OT system uses a relatively simple continuous-wave NIRS approach which allows one to measure the changes in oxy-haemoglobin (∆HbO2) and deoxy-haemoglobin (∆HHb) concentrations.
 Role of optical fiber:-
      Further distinction is often made in the case of fiber sensors as to whether measured act externally or internally to the fiber. Where the transducers are external to the fiber and the fiber merely registers and transmits the sensed quantity, the sensors are termed extrinsic sensors. Where the sensors are embedded in or are part of the fiber  and for this type there is often some modification to the fiber itself the sensors are termed internal or intrinsic sensors. Examples of extrinsic sensors are moving gratings to sense strain, fiber-to-fiber couplers to sense displacement, and absorption cells to sense chemistry effects. Examples of intrinsic sensors are those that use micro bending losses in the fiber to sense strain, modified fiber claddings to make spectroscopic measurements, and counter-propagating beams within a fiber coil to measure rotation.
 OIS Tomography, is ‘intrinsic’ cause it doesn’t use any other extrinsic marker like fluorescent dyes. This technique helps light to trace CBF(cerebrum blood flow), a popular for brain activity. Increased activity in a particular area of the brain causes demand for resources such as ‘oxygen ‘and ‘glucose’, which triggers an increase in blood flow to the active area. The increased metabolism and brain tissue, which can be detected as changes in the reflectivity of incident light. Near-infrared (NIR) imaging techniques are a versatile and increasingly popular means of studying blood flow and oxygenation in human tissue. They exploit the significant differences in the absorption spectra of the oxygenated and deoxygenated forms of haemoglobin at near-infrared wavelengths. By measuring the changes in the intensity of diffusely transmitted near-infrared light across a region of tissue. It is Possible to gain well-localized information about blood oxygenation and hemodynamic. Optical configuration is the application of NIR techniques to produce spatially resolved, Two-dimensional images of changes in both oxy haemoglobin (HbO2) and de-oxy haemoglobin (HbR).
Optical configuration is most commonly used to observe the hemodynamic response of surface areas of the brain to a chosen stimulus. OC has been used extensively to study the functional activation of the motor and visual cortices as well as being used in the studies of language processing and development.
Optical Absorption of Haemoglobin:
       The change observation lies in differences between the absorption spectra of oxy haemoglobin (HbO2) and de-oxy haemoglobin (HbR) .changes in scattering properties are due to increased blood volume, which brings additional fluid, cells and other blood components into the active area. Obtaining the pictures of brain is possible because of observing the intensity changes in back –scattered light, called intrinsic optical signals (OIS),that corresponds to fluctuations in blood oxygenation and volume associated with neural activity. While much information can be derived from imaging at a single wavelength, the use of spectroscopy adds a powerful dimension: the ability to monitor metabolism .Because the absorption spectra of HbR and HbO2 intersect at several points, it is possible to derive the level of oxygenation in the blood, which is an indicator of metabolic activity. Indeed, it has been shown that the time course of IOS signals varies with wavelength, depending on whether HbR or HbO2 is the dominant blood chromaphore. The use of three wavelengths, one where HbR is dominant, one where HbO2 is dominant, and one at the isosbestic point where the two spectra intersect is sufficient to determine the ratio of Hb to HbO2, and account for changes in reflectivity due to blood volume.

By the help of some mathematical and analytical approaches we can enhanced the optical brain imaging. For the better image optimization, we can use the image processing tools and the whole system is combined in one consign with minimum hardware requirement. The optical brain imaging is one of the latest areas of research. The electronics and biomedical engineering are benefited by these fields which can solve the problems of many diseases in which the diagnosis is required like stoke, brain hammers, clotting in brain, etc.

 

Anoop Tiwari
Asst.Professor
Dept.of Electronics & Communication
Sagar institute of Science & Technology

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