MSc course
programme on Biomedical Optics
Janis Spigulis
University of
Latvia, Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, IAPS
Raina Blvd. 19,
Riga, LV-1586, Latvia
E-mail:
janispi@acad.latnet.lv
ABSTRACT
A new Msc study course programme on Biomedical Optics has been
developed and adapted. The programme consists of three main parts:
- Fundamentals of tissue optics,
- Optical sensing for diagnostics and
monitoring,
- Laser-tissue interaction and laser
treatment.
The full programme and some comments on it are presented.
Keywords: biomedical optics education.
1.
INTRODUCTION
Biomedical Optics has become a significant research and clinical
application area attracting wide public attention during the recent decade.
Large and well-attended annual symposia and conferences on Biomedical Optics
are organized in Europe (EUROPTO BIOS-Europe series), USA (SPIE BIOS-series in
San Jose, CA), and elsewhere. Results of research and development are regularly
published at “Journal of Biomedical Optics”, “Biophotonics International” and
other specialized journals. Many physicists are involved in this promising
interdisciplinary area now, as well as doctors and other specialists with
bio-medical background. The additionally needed knowledge and skills most of them
had acquired by self-education and self-training. Only few topics of Biomedical
Optics are included in traditionally well-established study programmes like
Medical Physics or Bioengineering. In fact, regular study courses on Biomedical
Optics at BSc and MSc levels are hardly available both in Europe and USA -
mainly due to lack of textbooks, teaching methodology and internationally
recognized study programmes.
The Physics Department at Faculty of Physics and Mathematics,
University of Latvia, has announced a new two-year “pilot” MSc curriculum on Biomedical Optics in 1995. The basic
courses included are Biomedical Optics, Lasers and Other Light Sources, Optical
Medical Instruments, Medical Lightguides, Anatomy and Physiology, Optical
Methods of Patient Treatment, etc.
The newly developed MSc course progamme on Biomedical Optics
(128 lecture hours) is presented below. Any comments and suggestions on it
would be highly appreciated.
2. THE
PROGRAMME
A. Fundamentals
of tissue optics.
1. Propagation of optical
radiation in tissues.
1.1. Optical wavelength range: ultraviolet, visible
and infrared spectral regions and their limits; specific “A”, “B” and “C” bands
of UV and IR. Main processes of the light-matter interaction: absorption,
scattering, reflection, refraction, luminescence, interference, polarization;
their physical models and mechanisms. Energetic structure of matter in gaseous,
liquid and solid state, character of corresponding absorption and emission
spectra.
1.2. Specific features of living tissues from the
point of optics. Relations of scattering and absorption in tissues; the “therapeutic window”.
1.3. Models of light propagation in tissues and the
parameters used: absorption and scattering coefficients, anisotropy,
penetration depth, transport parameters; their connection with diffuse
reflectance (remission). Time-resolved remittance models. Modeling of
anisotropic, isotropic and layered tissue structures.
1.4. Experimental studies of light propagation in
tissues; tissue phantoms in experiments. Basic principles of optical
tomography.
2. Skin optics.
2.1. Structure of human skin. Thicknesses and optical
properties of appropriate skin layers. The Kubelka - Munk model. Experimental
data on skin absorbance and remittance in different spectral regions. Skin
pigments (melanin, bilirubin, carotene, haemoglobin) and their spectra.
2.2. Influence of UV radiation to human skin. Human
erytherma action spectra. Melanogenesis (tanning) and its mechanism.
Classification of human skin types according to sunburn. Sunscreens; sun
protection factor (SPF) values and subsequent effects.
2.3. Principles of phototherapy. Heliotherapy.
Solariums and their equipment; spectral and power parameters of solaruim lamps.
Phototherapy of Hyperbilirubinemia and Psoriasis.
3. Blood optics.
2.1 Composition of blood.
Spectral properties of erythrocytes,
thrombocytes and blood plasma.
2.2. Differences between oxygenated and unoxygenated
haemoglobin absorption spectra. Principles of optical pulse oximetry.
2.3. Routine “in vitro” blood spectral analysis in laboratories: basic requirements and
equipment.
4. Optics of the hard
tissues.
4.1. Structure of human bones, nails and teeth; their
spectral characteristics.
4.2. Teeth fluorescence and its use for diagnosis of
caries. Photopolymeric teeth fillings and their irradiation devices.
5. Eye
optics.
5.1. Structure of human eye. Absorbance and
refractivity of various components in
ocular media. Color vision mechanism, color receptors and their spectral
sensitivity.
5.2. Effects of UV-A,B,C, visible and IR-A,B,C
irradiation on human vision. Retinal maximum permissible exposures of optical
radiation. Eye protective filters and goggles.
B. Optical
sensing for diagnostics and monitoring.
1. Biomedical optical sensors: general
classification. Pure optical, physical and chemical sensors; sensors for
diagnostics, patient monitoring and signalling. Invasive and non-invasive
optical sensors. Optical fibre medical sensors.
2. Photoplethysmography; its use for heartbeat rate,
blood supply and arterial blood pressure sensing.
3. Optical pulse oximeters: design principles.
Invasive and non-invasive blood oxygen saturation measurements. Features of
finger, earlobe and eye pulse oximetry. Remission-based one-touch pulse oximeters.
Commercial devices.
4. Laser Doppler flowmetry: basic principles of
operation. Blood supply and blood flow measurements by means of LDF. Design of
invasive and non-invasive LDFs. Non-contact blood flow determination, blood
flow imaging and mapping. Commercial devices.
5. Near-infrared cerebral oxygenation monitoring.
Absorption of haemoglobin and cytochrome aa3 in 700 - 1000 nm wavelength
region. Peculiarities of infant NIRO-monitoring. Commercial devices.
6. Spectrometry of human tissues. Absorption and
remission in-vivo measurements of
glucose, bilirubin and fat in a human body. In-vitro
spectrometry in clinical laboratories and pharmacology praxis. Commercial
devices.
7. Optical sensing of physical parameters. Design
principles of biomedical optical sensors of temperature, pressure and
displacement. Commercial devices.
8. Optical sensing of biochemical analytes.
Evanescent wave devices. Fibre optic invasive biosensors for determination of
pH, O2, CO2 and other analytes in human body. Commercial devices.
9. Optical fluorescence diagnostics: main principles
and applications in oncology, cardiology and dentistry.
C. Laser-tissue
interactions and laser treatment.
1. Basic designs of medical lasers and radiation
delivery devices.
2. General mechanisms of laser-tissue interaction.
Laser-caused photochemical, photothermal and photodecomposition effects;
corresponding radiant doses and temperature intervals. Penetration depth of
laser radiation in tissues. Cellural necrosis as a time-temperature function. Critical laser power/energy
densities causing photocoagulation, carbonization, vaporization and
photoablation of tissues.
3. Medical laser safety. Laser safety classes 1, 2,
3A, 3B and 4 and the corresponding potential hazards. Occupational exposure limits
for commonly used lasers. Laser-protective goggles. Laser danger warning labels
and their colouring. Laser safety national and international standards.
4. Low-power laser therapy and biostimulation:
techniques and possible mechanisms. Laser acupuncture and wound healing.
5. Medium-power laser applications. Laser
photodynamic therapy: basic idea and the optical energy transfer scheme.
Designs of optical diffusers used for PDT. Port wine strain and tattoo removal
by laser irradiation: physical principles.
6. High-power laser applications. Principles of laser
surgery, laser angioplasty and laser dentistry. Tissue welding by laser
radiation. Laser spark, bubble creation and shock wave dynamics. Advantages and
applications of Holmium and Erbium lasers in medicine.
3. INFORMATION
SOURCES AND THE TWO-YEAR TEACHING EXPERIENCE
A broad spectrum of information sources was used to prepare this
programme. The books referred below (in chronological order) are very
informative and useful, as well as a number of review papers from journals and
proceedings which are not reflected here. One must note that Biomedical Optics
is a very dynamic and rapidly developing field, therefore all recent
proceedings of the SPIE and EUROPTO BIOS-conferences can be recommended to be
always on the “cutting edge”.
A lot of information for this programme was collected during
author’s 6 month stay at King’s College London in 1995, especially by attending
the Oxford Summer School Optics in
Medicine 11; also the 6 week TEMPUS-PHARE project to develop this programme at London and Linkoping
universities in 1996 was very useful. A
number of books and papers on specific items were found in libraries and by
search in the MEDLINE database, some information on the topic is available at
Internet, as well.
Two MSc student groups (8 and 9 persons) were educated following
this programme in academic years 1995/1996 and 1996/1997. The students were
with various backgrounds - physics, engineering, biology and medicine. Generally
all of them have acquired the main items of the course without significant
difficulties, only few students with medical background had some problems with
physical description of the biooptical phenomena in tissues. The 2nd year students worked out their MSc
thesis this spring; for illustration, there are some titles of the MSc thesis:
- Application of Tissue
Fluorescence for Cancer Diagnostics,
- Phototherapy of Infant
Hyperbilirubinemia,
- Image Analysis in Medical
Diagnostics,
- Dosimetry Problems of
Intravascular Laser Irradiation,
- Methods of Underskin
Optical Monitoring.
4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This programme could be created only thanks to support and
advises of numerous Biomedical Optics professionals. The author is most obliged
to Prof. D. T. Delpy, University College London, U. K., and Prof. P. A. Oberg,
Linkoping University, Sweden. The financial support received in frame of the
TEMPUS-PHARE grant IMG-95-LV-2007 is
highly appreciated.
5. REFERENCES
1. J. D. Regan and J. A. Parrish, The Science of Photomedicine, Plenum Press, N-Y and London, 1982
2. D. Sliney, Safety with
Lasers and Other Optical Sources, Plenum Press, NY and London, 1982
3. P. Rolfe, Non-invasive
Physiological Measurements, v. 2, Academic Press, London, 1983.
4. J. P. Payne and J. W. Severinghaus, Pulse Oximetry, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1986.
5. J. A. S. Carruth and A. L. McKenzie, Medical Lasers: Science and Clinical Practice, Adam Hilger Ltd.,
Bristol and Boston, 1986.
6. A. P. Sheperd and P. A. Oberg, Laser Doppler Blood Flowmetry, Kluwer Publ., Boston, 1990.
7. U. Dingali et al., Optical
Imaging of Brain Functions and Metabolism, Plenum Press, N-Y, 1993.
8. A. Katzir, Lasers and
Optical Fibers in Medicine, Academic Press, N-Y, 1993.
9. P. Vaupel et al., Oxygen
Transport to Tissue XV, Plenum Press, N-Y and London, 1994.
10. BIOS Europe ‘94 -
International Symposium on Biomedical Optics, EUROPTO, Lille, 1994.
11. Materials of the 2nd Mayneord-Phillips Summer School Optics in Medicine, Oxford, 1995.
12. A. J. Welch, M. Van Germet, Optical Thermal Response of Laser-Irradiated Tissue, Plenum Press,
N-Y, 1995.
13. J. Spigulis, The
Potential for Fibre Optic Sensors in Medical Monitoring, King’s College
London, 1995.
14. S. L. Jacques, Tissue
Optics, SPIE Short Course Notes SC 34, Bellingham, 1996.
15. T. Hasan, Fundamentals
of Photochemistry and Photodynamic Therapy, SPIE Short Course Notes SC 35,
1996.
16. BIOS ‘96 -
International Symposium on Biomedical Optics: Technical Abstract Digest,
SPIE, San Jose, 1996.
17. BIOS ‘97 -
International Symposium on Biomedical Optics: Technical Abstract Digest,
SPIE, San Jose, 1997.
Published in:
SPIE Proc. Vol. 3190, 1997 (Education and Training in
Optics, Delft, NL), p. 342-345.