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We present the fabrication and characterization of optical fiber reflection probes based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and micro-lensed multimode fibers. For the SERS substrate, a nano-sphere lithography method is used. Comparison of SERS measurements with three different fiber probe configurations is presented. The proposed optimized structure shows a five times increase in SERS signal for dried Rhodamine 6G (R6G) and two times for aqueous R6G in comparison to a standard reflection configuration. Measurements of different concentrations of R6G in a water solution with an limit of detection (LOD) equal to 10 -7 M are demonstrated. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Frequent glucose monitoring is a fundamental part of diabetes management, and good glucose control is important for long-term health outcomes. New types of electrochemical sensors that allow for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) have become an important tool for diabetes management, although they still have drawbacks such as short lifetime and a need for frequent calibration. Other technologies are still being researched for CGM, in an attempt to replace the electrochemical sensors. Optical methods have several advantages for CGM, including potentially long sensor lifetimes and short measurement times, and many developments have been made over the last decades. This paper will review optical measurement methods for CGM, their challenges, and the current research status. The different methods will be compared, and the future prospects for optical methods will be discussed.

Diabetes mellitus 1 requires tight control of the blood glucose levels to avoid harmful effects of either too high (hyperglycemia) or too low (hypoglycemia) blood sugar. Due to the availability of low-cost components, fiber- coupled near infrared (NIR) absorption spectroscopy could be a feasible measurement method. From the molar absorptivity of glucose, it is shown that to achieve high accuracy using near infrared spectroscopy for glucose sensing, relative noise levels should not exceed 0:003 %. Two supercontinuum (SC) sources and one broadband lamp were investigated with a low-cost portable spectrometer. The SNR of the two SC sources was limited by amplitude fluctuations and could be improved by averaging. The SNR of the broadband source was found to be largely limited by the detector noise due to the weak intensity. 16 aqueous glucose samples ranging from 0 to 500mm were measured with the broadband source and an SC laser. A partial least squares regression (PLSR) model was built for both measurement sets, yielding root mean square errors of 49 and 54mm, illustrating how the limit of detection is restrained by the high relative intensity noise. A reference arm setup was built and could account for much of the variability of the SC source. A glucose measurement series using this setup and five samples (100 to 500mm) yielded a root mean square error of 10:6mm. The results indicate that an SC source can be feasible for absorption spectroscopy in a reference arm setup. © 2019 Society of Photo Optical Instrumentation Engineers. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper are prohibited.

In classical approaches for an artificial pancreas, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is the only measured variable used for insulin dosing and additional control functions. The CGM values are subject to time delays and slow dynamics between blood and the sensing location. These time lags compromise the controller’s performance in maintaining (near to) normal glucose levels. Meal information could enhance the control outcome. However, meal announcement by the user is not reliable, and it takes 30 min to 40 min from meal onset until a meal is detected by methods based on CGM. In this pilot study, the use of bowel sounds for meal detection was investigated. In particular, we focused on whether bowel sounds change qualitatively during or shortly after meal ingestion. After fasting for at least 4 h, 11 healthy volunteers ingested a lunch meal at their usual time. Abdominal sound was recorded by a condenser microphone that was attached to the right upper quadrant of the abdomen by medical tape. Features that describe the power distribution over the frequency spectrum were extracted and used for classification by support vector machines. These classifiers were trained in a leave-one-out cross-validation scheme. Meals could be detected on average 10 min (std: 4.4 min) after they had started. Half of these were detected without false alarms. This shows that abdominal sound monitoring could provide an early meal detection. Further studies should investigate this possibility on a larger population in more general settings., Spectrogram of a recording in the training set. Windows with a length of 20 s and overlap of 10 s were analyzed using spectrogram function in MATLAB. The meal started at minute 51.

In patients with diabetes mellitus type 1, the pancreatic insulin production ceases, causing raise in blood glucose level (BGL) and potentially severe long-term complications. The "holy grail" of diabetes treatment is the artificial pancreas (AP), a closed-loop control system that regulates the user’s BGL by infusing insulin, and possibly glucagon. Numerous attempts have been largely unsuccessful, mainly due to slow dynamics that make it difficult to avoid unwanted BGL excursions. System performance has been improved through improved sensor technology and faster-acting insulin types, but the risk of hypoglycemia is still significant unless the glucose setpoint is unnaturally high. We argue that this problem can be circumvented by choosing appropriate sites for glucose measurement and insulin infusion. While intravascular measurement and infusion provides the fastest dynamics and thus the best conditions for closed-loop control, it is only viable in inpatients mainly due to danger of infections and limited sensor durability. On the other extreme, state-of-the-art subcutaneous systems exhibit significant time delays and diffusion dynamics, yielding poor BGL control in the event of disturbances like meals and physical activity. Avoiding dangerous hypoglycemia therefore comes at the expense of daily episodes of elevated BGL (typically 10-15 mmol/L) that increase the risk of long-term complications. Furthermore, slow insulin uptake from subcutis remains as a major challenge. Hence we advocate the double intraperitoneal (IP) AP. Here, insulin is released into the abdominal cavity (peritoneum) through a semi-permanent port, which also allows access for IP glucose sensing. This improves both sensing and absorption dynamics. Thus the closed-loop control may be significantly tighter, allowing a setpoint closer to the healthy normal BGL of approximately 4.5 mmol/L whilst potentially improving system safety. These statements are supported by results from our own research and the literature.

Closed-loop glucose control has the potential to improve the glycemic control in patients with diabetes mellitus type 1. Such an artificial pancreas (AP) should keep the user safe despite all disturbances and faults. The objective of this paper is to analyze those perturbations according to their effects on the glycemic status, and thereby supporting an informed design process of the control system. As suggested by the international standard ISO 14971 for risk management of medical devices, the well proven failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) was chosen as instrument. An FMEA scheme was modified for this purpose and applied to a single-hormone system with subcutaneous and intraperitoneal routes for glucose sensing and insulin administration. Faults that imply urgent danger and thus require fast detection and diagnosis were identified and distinguished from disturbances that can be sufficiently addressed by basic control functions, e.g. by adaptive control algorithms. Requirements and testing criteria for basic control functions as well as fault detection and diagnosis functions can be derived from the provided overview.

A novel ball-lensed fiber transmission sensor is presented aimed at in vivo continuous glucose monitoring of diabetics. Preliminary results yield 20 mM RMSE, limited by mechanical instability. The design enables flexibility and further miniaturization. © 2018 The Author(s). One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modifications of the content of this paper are prohibited.

Mid-infrared spectroscopy using multivariate analysis for quantification has high potential in biosensing. This case study on aqueous glucose solutions yields improved prediction errors by optimising preprocessing and wavelength selection procedures.

We demonstrate a multimode optical fiber sensor for spectroscopic Raman measurements of glucose concentration for the application in intraperitoneal glucose detection in diabetic patients. A regression model with a RMSEC of 2.2 mM was obtained. © [2018] Optical Society of America]. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modifications of the content of this paper are prohibited.

Introduction Patients with diabetes type 1 (DM1) struggle daily to achieve good glucose control. The last decade has seen a rush of research groups working towards an artificial pancreas (AP) through the application of a double subcutaneous approach, i.e., subcutaneous (SC) continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion. Few have focused on the fundamental limitations of this approach, especially regarding outcome measures beyond time in range. Methods Based on insulin physiology, the limitations of CGM, SC insulin absorption, meal challenge, and physical activity in DM1 patients, we discuss the limitations of the double SC approach. Finally, we discuss safety measures and the achievements reported in some recent AP studies that have utilized the double SC approach. Results Most studies show that a double SC AP increases the time in range compared to a sensor-augmented insulin pump and shortens the time in hypoglycemia. Despite these achievements, the proportion of time spent in hyperglycemia is still roughly 20–40%, and hypoglycemia is still present 1–4% of the time. The main factors limiting further progress are the latency of SC CGM (at least 5–10 min) and the slow pharmacokinetics of SC-delivered fast-acting insulin. The maximum blood insulin level is reached after 45 min and the maximum glucose-lowering effect is observed after 1.5–2 h, while the glucose-lowering effect lasts for at least 5 h. Conclusions Although using a double SC AP leads to significant improvements in glucose control, the SC approach has severe limitations that hamper further progress towards a robust AP. © The Author(s) 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

The bulkiness of common transmission spectroscopy probes prevents applicability at remote locations such as within the body. We present the fabrication and characterization of lensed fibers for transmission spectroscopy in the near-infrared. Eigenmode simulations and measurements of the coupling efficiency are presented and applied to design the setup corresponding to the sample absorption. Sensing capabilities are demonstrated on aqueous glucose samples ranged 80 to 500 mM, obtaining a mean absolute percentage error of calibration of 4.3%. With increased flexibility, transmission spectroscopic sensors at remote locations may be achievable, for example, applied to in vivo continuous glucose monitoring.

We present the fabrication and characterization of a novel sensing configuration based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and two micro-lensed optical fibers. The first micro-lensed fiber is used to excite surface plasmon resonance in a gold film deposited over a mono-layer of nano-sphere surface (AuFON), and the second lensed fiber is used to collect the SERS signal. The sensing capabilities of the fabricated device are demonstrated by measuring different concentrations of Rhodamine 6G in a water solution.

Saturated-absorption signals on the calcium 657 nm transition are observed by direct absorption using diode lasers and a high flux atomic-beam cell. Line-widths as narrow as 65 kHz are observed with a high signal-to-noise ratio. Prospects for using this system as a compact wavelength/frequency reference are considered.

Semiconductor laser injection locking transients are analyzed. By adiabatically eliminating the carrier dynamics, a single nonlinear stochastic differential equation is obtained for the relative phase between the master and slave lasors. The corresponding Fokker-Planck equation is used to study the steady-state locked conditions as well as phase transients of the locking process. Noise causes the steady-state relative phase between the master and the slave lasers to be a random variable with a standard deviation of approximately a few degrees for typical injection levels. The standard deviation can be reduced by using a phase detector with a limited bandwidth. The mean locking time in the presence of noise is slightly less than the deterministic prediction. Noise also causes the locked lasers to have a finite probability to momentarily unlock. >

The mode hopping dynamics of a two-mode laser are investigated through numerical simulations. The authors derive an algorithm, based on autocorrelation techniques, by which the average mode hopping rate can be estimated from time sequences of the numbers of photons of the two modes. The method works both for symmetric and asymmetric gain conditions. The results show that the average mode hopping rate decreases with increasing asymmetry in the gain coefficients of the two modes. These results are in agreement with what one would expect from physical considerations. In the case of symmetric gain conditions, the results are compared to theoretically derived formulas, showing reasonable agreement in current dependence and in the dependence on the gain saturation coefficients. >

Currently used temperature sensor systems do not provide sufficient spatial resolution and can not be used as an integrated part of minimally invasive treatment. Few magnetic resonance (MR) compatible sensor systems are available. A distributed fibre Bragg-grating sensor system for use in biological tissue was constructed. Ten Bragg gratings were inscribed in the core of an optical fibre. The fibre was mounted into tubes made of MR-compatible materials. An opto-electronic unit connected to the fibre was used for signal generation and detection. Communication with a PC allowed presentation and logging of temperature data. The system was calibrated to the temperature range#150;195.8#176;C to 100#176;C. Experiments were conducted during freezing (cryoablation) of porcine liver in vivo . The system yielded a temperature profile with 6.5 mm spatial resolution and 5 s temporal resolution. Both mechanical stability and MR compatibility were acceptable and will allow routine use.

— Optical properties of the human brain in the wave-length region from blue to near infrared are presented. There are significant variations in the optical penetration depth from the neonatal and to the adult brain. Typical values for the penetration depth in the adult brain are: 0.5 mm for blue/green, 1.5 mm for red and 3.5 mm for near infrared. The values for the neonatal brain are typically 2–3 times larger.

This paper presents the requirements on fibre optic sensors for subsea wellhead monitoring. A possible advantage of fibre optics is increased reliability of the monitoring system. However, to achieve this a substantial amount of development and testing has to be performed. A very important factor in the selection of sensor principles for further development is their possibility for success. New technologies have to solve problems and not increase the probability for failures.

In tumor therapy there will presumably exist an optimum of the optical dose rate and the photosensitizer dose. This work discusses the PRT of Lewis lung carcinomas in mice performed at low optical power levels combined with rather high doses of photosensitizer. The light and temperature dosimetry is of great importance in phototherapy, consequently those parameters have been monitored during the irradiation period. Equally important is the drug dosimetry. Reported values of administered drug concentrations vary over almost two orders of magnitude 1.