Terahertz time-lapse imaging of hydration in physiological tissues
Neha Bajwa, David B. Bennett, Elliott R. Brown, Martin O. Culjat, Warren S. Grundfest, Ashkan Maccabi, Rahul S. Singh, Shijun Sung, Zachary D. Taylor, Priyamvada Tewari, Photonics West - Optoelectronic Materials and Devices 103, SPIE OPTO 894273 2011-01-22|2011-01-27 San Francisco, California, USA, Terahertz Technology and Applications IV 7938, THz Imaging, Spectroscopy, and Instrumentation 1
This study describes terahertz (THz) imaging of hydration changes in physiological tissues with high water concentration sensitivity. A fast-scanning, pulsed THz imaging system (centered at 525 GHz; 125 GHz bandwidth) was utilized to acquire a 35 mm x 35 mm field-of-view with 0.5 mm x 0.5 mm pixels in less than two minutes. THz time-lapsed images were taken on three sample systems: (1) a simple binary system of water evaporating from a polypropylene towel, (2) the accumulation of fluid at the site of a sulfuric acid burn on ex vivo porcine skin, and (3) the evaporative dehydration of an ex vivo porcine cornea. The diffusion-regulating behavior of corneal tissue is elucidated, and the correlation of THz reflectivity with tissue hydration is measured using THz spectroscopy on four ex vivo corneas. We conclude that THz imaging can discern small differences in the distribution of water in physiological tissues and is a good candidate for burn and corneal imaging
Chapter, 2011
7938, 20110217, 793808
2011