METHOD FOR DETERMINING PENETRATION DEPTH OF LIGHT INTO SKIN AND DEVICE FOR IMPLEMENTING IT Russian patent published in 2014 - IPC A61B5/00 G01N21/47 G01N33/483 

FIELD: medicine.

SUBSTANCE: group of inventions refers to medical instrument engineering. Skin and a calibration sample are exposed to optical radiation in at least N_λ≥3 narrow or wide spectral regions Λ_k (k=1,…,N). Signals emitted by the skin and calibration sample are recorded with an activated and de-activated radiation emitter. Diffusion reflection factors R(Λ_k) are derived from the relation $$R({\Lambda }_k)=R_{std}\frac{V({\Lambda }_k)-v({\Lambda }_k)}{V_{std}({\Lambda }_k)-v_{std}({\Lambda }_k)},$$ wherein R_std is a diffusion reflection factor of the calibration sample in the spectral regions Λ_k; ν(Λ_k), ν_std(Λ_k) are the signals emitted by the skin and calibration sample in the spectral regions Λ_k with the de-activated radiation emitter, V(Λ_k), V_std(Λ_k) are the signals reflected from the skin and calibration sample in the spectral regions Λ_k with the activated radiation emitter. A penetration depth of light into the skin is determined by analytic expressions relating the spectral penetration depths of light R(Λ_k), or with projections R(Λ_k) on a space from proper vectors of a co-variation matrix R(Λ_k). A device comprises a wide-band light emitter, a receiving fibre optic cable and a photodetector, a monochromator, two linear polarisers, a calibration sample, and a focusing device. The photodetector is presented on the basis of a charge coupled device matrix an input of which is connected through an output of the second linear polariser receiving the emission from skin and calibration sample. An axis of the second polariser is perpendicular to an axis of the first one. An output of the photodetector is connected to a unit for recording and processing the signals from the skin and calibration sample.

EFFECT: group of inventions enables providing more accurate determination of the depth penetration of light into the skin by eliminating the use of a priori information of an object being tested, the effect of a spread of instrumental constants of the reflected signal recording system, eliminating a contribution of the emission reflected from the skin surface into the recorded optical signals.

2 cl, 11 dwg