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We investigate the use of spatially resolved diffuse imaging to track a fluid jet delivered at high speed into skin tissue. A jet injector with a short needle to deliver drugs beneath the dermis, is modified to incorporate a laser beam into the jet, which is ejected into ex vivo porcine tissue. The diffuse light emitted from the side and top of the tissue sample is recorded using high-speed videography. Similar experiments, using a depth-controlled fiber optic source, generate a reference dataset. The side light distribution is related to source depth for the controlled-source experiments and used to track the effective source depth of the injections. Postinjection X-ray images show agreement between the jet penetration and ultimate light source depth. The surface light intensity profile is parameterized with a single parameter and an exponential function is used to relate this parameter to source depth for the controlled-source data. This empirical model is then used to estimate the effective source depth from the surface profile of the injection experiments. The depth estimates for injections into fat remain close to the side depth estimates, with a root-mean-square error of 1.1 mm, up to a source depth of 8 mm.

In this work, a system is developed for tracking the skin layer to which a needle-free jet injection of fluid has penetrated by incorporating a laser beam into the jet, and measuring the diffuse light emitted from skin tissue. Monitoring the injection in this way offers the ability to improve the reliability of drug delivery with this transdermal delivery method. A laser beam, axially aligned with a jet of fluid, created a distribution of diffuse light around the injection site that varied as the injection progressed. High-speed videography was used to capture the diffuse light emission from laser-coupled jet injections into samples of porcine skin, fat, and muscle. The injection produced a distribution of diffuse light around the injection site that varied as the injection descended. A classifier, trained to distinguish whether the light source was located in the fat or muscle from surface intensity profile measurements, correctly identified the injected layer in [Formula: see text] of the cases when cross-examined against estimates using the light distribution emitted from the side of the sample.

The effect of varying velocity during jet injection on the dispersion of fluid into tissue is investigated using a custom-built X-ray imaging system. Injections are performed into ex-vivo porcine abdominal tissue using a voice coil actuated injection device. Single velocity and two-phase velocity injections reveal the complex nature of the dispersion of the fluid jet in layered tissue and highlight the effects of changing the jet velocity following the initial penetration of the liquid into the tissue.

We present an inexpensive imaging system for measuring the diffuse surface radiance profile produced by a light source within a turbid medium. The diffusion model of light propagation in multiple scattering media is used to estimate the optical properties of a sample and subsequently approximate the depth of an optical source. The system is shown to accurately estimate the relative changes in source depth in a homogeneous phantom. The absolute depth estimate may be improved with a better estimate of the optical parameters. Preliminary tests on a porcine skin sample show that the simple model can be used to roughly track the relative changes in the depth of a source in a layered medium. However, a rigorous model of the layered geometry may be required to more accurately localize a source, particularly near interfaces between tissue layers.