Igor S. Sidorov

A new look at the essence of the imaging photoplethysmography

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a noninvasive optical method accepted in the clinical use for measurements of arterial oxygen saturation. It is widely believed that the light intensity after interaction with the biological tissue in vivo is modulated at the heartbeat frequency mainly due to pulsatile variations of the light absorption caused by arterial blood-volume pulsations. Here we report experimental observations, which are not consistent with this model and demonstrate the importance of elastic deformations of the capillary bed in the formation of the PPG waveform. These results provide new insight on light interaction with live tissue. To explain the observations we propose a new model of PPG in which pulse oscillations of the arterial transmural pressure deform the connective-tissue components of the dermis resulting in periodical changes of both the light scattering and absorption. These local changes of the light-interaction parameters are detected as variations of the light intensity returned to a photosensitive camera. Therefore, arterial pulsations can be indirectly monitored even by using the light, which slightly penetrates into the biological tissue.

Influence of polarization filtration on the information readout from pulsating blood vessels

Imaging photoplethysmography (IPPG) is a recently developed technique for noncontact assessment of cardiovascular function. However, its wide use is limited by low signal-to-noise ratio due to motion artifacts. The aim of this work is to estimate the polarization-filtration impact on discriminating artifacts in IPPG measurements. Experiments were carried out in-vivo by almost simultaneous illumination of subjects palm with polarized and non-polarized light during video recording of 41 subjects. It was found that the light-polarization filtration efficiently reduces motion artifacts compared to the non-polarized illumination while the pulsation amplitude measured at the heartbeat frequency remains unaffected. The polarization filtration improves reliability of IPPG system in non-contact monitoring of subjects heart rate and its variability.

Accurate measurement of the pulse wave delay with imaging photoplethysmography.

Assessment of the cardiovascular parameters using noncontact video-based or imaging photoplethysmography (IPPG) is usually considered as inaccurate because of strong influence of motion artefacts. To optimize this technique we performed a simultaneous recording of electrocardiogram and video frames of the face for 36 healthy volunteers. We found that signal disturbances originate mainly from the stochastically enhanced dichroic notch caused by endogenous cardiovascular mechanisms, with smaller contribution of the motion artefacts. Our properly designed algorithm allowed us to increase accuracy of the pulse-transit-time measurement and visualize propagation of the pulse wave in the facial region. Thus, the accurate measurement of the pulse wave parameters with this technique suggests a sensitive approach to assess local regulation of microcirculation in various physiological and pathological states.

Origin of Infrared Light Modulation in Reflectance-Mode Photoplethysmography.

We recently pointed out the important role of dermis deformation by pulsating arterial pressure in the formation of a photoplethysmographic signal at green light. The aim of this study was to explore the role of this novel finding in near-infrared (NIR) light. A light-emitting diode (LED)-based imaging photoplethysmography (IPPG) system was used to detect spatial distribution of blood pulsations under frame-to-frame switching green and NIR illumination in the palms of 34 healthy individuals. We observed a significant increase of light-intensity modulation at the heartbeat frequency for both illuminating wavelengths after a palm was contacted with a glass plate. Strong positive correlation between data measured at green and NIR light was found, suggesting that the same signal was read independently from the depth of penetration. Analysis of the data shows that an essential part of remitted NIR light is modulated in time as a result of elastic deformations of dermis caused by variable blood pressure in the arteries. Our observations suggest that in contrast with the classical model, photoplethysmographic waveform originates from the modulation of the density of capillaries caused by the variable pressure applied to the skin from large blood vessels. Particularly, beat-to-beat transmural pressure in arteries compresses/decompresses the dermis and deforms its connective-tissue components, thus affecting the distance between the capillaries, which results in the modulation of absorption and scattering coefficients of both green and NIR light. These findings are important for the correct interpretation of this widely used medical technique, which may have novel applications in diagnosis and treatment monitoring of aging and skin diseases.

Estimation of light penetration depth in turbid media using laser speckles

We present novel experimental method for estimation of the light penetration depth (LPD) in turbid media based on the analysis of the speckle pattern structure. Under the certain illumination conditions this structure is strongly dependent on the penetration depth. Presented theoretical model based on the Bragg diffraction from the thick holograms allows LPD estimation if only one parameter of the material, namely refractive index, of the material is known. Feasibility of the method was checked experimentally. Experimental results obtained for variety of the materials are in good agreement with the theoretical assumptions. It was shown that qualitative LPD comparison does not require knowledge of the material properties.

Search a methane hydrate in the Arctic with photonics methods

Identifying methane anomalies responsible for the temperature increase, by hiking trails in the Arctic requires great human labor. It is necessary to use lidar methods for search and identification of methane from permafrost. Necessary to create a Raman lidar for monitoring of emissions of methane hydrate from the permafrost. Hyperspectral resolution would resolve the isotope shifts in the Stokes spectra, thereby to determine the isotopic composition of methane ratio C14/C12 CH4 carbon emissions and identify the source for study (permafrost or oil deposits)

Specifics of processing SRS lidar signals in GHz frequency range

One of the highly effective methods of operative remote environmental monitoring on land and water surfaces is laser sensing. It knew that the Raman scattering cross section is very small (10-25-10-27), so in some cases radiation back into captivity to the target could be a few tens of photons. For high-speed sensing, speed of processing and ease of use lidar units required for the use of appropriate hardware and software systems used for the decision of tasks of collecting, processing, storing, organizing large amounts of data.

Speckle-based sensor system for real-time distance and thickness monitoring of fast moving objects

Real-time distance monitoring and thickness measurements of production lines are typical tasks of the manufacturing process. We demonstrate a novel optical sensor prototype capable of providing accurate distance measurements of fast moving objects. The principle of sensor operation is based on spatial filtering of dynamic speckles generated with a scanning laser beam. The sensor is able to measure the distance to opaque (metals, etc) and to multi-scattering materials (papers, plastics, etc). The presented sensor prototype provides measurements and data processing in real time. We verify sensor prototype performance of multi-scattering material (paper web) moving with a speed of 35 m s −1 .

Accuracy of measuring systems using dynamic speckles.

Diffraction-limited accuracy is estimated for measuring systems exploiting dynamic speckles. Statistical properties of the signal in the systems with spatial filtering are used to evaluate the signal frequency with precision sufficient to achieve the diffraction-limited accuracy. The results of the analysis allow for designing an optimal measuring system in which components are matched with each other to provide the highest accuracy. Experiments carried out with a range sensor using spatially filtered dynamic speckles are in good agreement with theory.

Energy effective dual-pulse bispectral laser for EUV lithography

The power consumption in the two-pulse bispectral primary source could be substantially decreased by replacing the SRS converters from 1.06 μm into 10.6 μm wavelength as the preamplifier cascades in СО2 laser channel at the same efficiency radiation of EUV source. The creation of high volume manufacturing lithography facilities with the technological standard of 10-20 nm is related to the implementation of resist exposure modes with pulse repetition rate of 100 kHz. Low power consumption of the proposed scheme makes it promising for the creation of LPP EUV sources.