Non-Invasive Hemoglobin Assessment with NIR Imaging of Blood Vessels in Transmittance Geometry: Monte Carlo and Experimental Evaluation
Ilia Bardadin,
Vladimir Petrov,
Georgy Denisenko,
Artashes Armaganov,
Anna Rubekina,
Daria Kopytina,
Vladimir Panov,
Petr Shatalov,
Victoria Khoronenko,
Petr Shegai,
Andrey Kaprin,
Andrey Shkoda,
Boris Yakimov
Affiliations
Ilia Bardadin
Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-2 Leninskie Gory, 119234 Moscow, Russia
Vladimir Petrov
Laboratory of Clinical Biophotonics, Biomedical Science and Technology Park, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Trubetskaya 8, 119048 Moscow, Russia
Georgy Denisenko
Laboratory of Clinical Biophotonics, Biomedical Science and Technology Park, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Trubetskaya 8, 119048 Moscow, Russia
Artashes Armaganov
Medical Research and Education Center, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia
Anna Rubekina
Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-2 Leninskie Gory, 119234 Moscow, Russia
Daria Kopytina
Endocrinology Research Center, Dmitriya Ulianova Street 11, 117036 Moscow, Russia
Vladimir Panov
Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-2 Leninskie Gory, 119234 Moscow, Russia
Petr Shatalov
FSBI “National Medical Research Radiological Centre” (NMRRC) of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 2nd Botkinsky Proezd 3, 125284 Moscow, Russia
Victoria Khoronenko
FSBI “National Medical Research Radiological Centre” (NMRRC) of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 2nd Botkinsky Proezd 3, 125284 Moscow, Russia
Petr Shegai
FSBI “National Medical Research Radiological Centre” (NMRRC) of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 2nd Botkinsky Proezd 3, 125284 Moscow, Russia
Andrey Kaprin
FSBI “National Medical Research Radiological Centre” (NMRRC) of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 2nd Botkinsky Proezd 3, 125284 Moscow, Russia
Andrey Shkoda
Moscow State Budgetary Institution of Healthcare “L.A. Vorohobov City Clinical Hospital No. 67 MHD”, Salama Adil Str., 2/44, 123423 Moscow, Russia
Boris Yakimov
Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-2 Leninskie Gory, 119234 Moscow, Russia
Non-invasive methods for determining blood hemoglobin (Hb) concentration are urgently needed to avoid the painful and time-consuming process of invasive venous blood sampling. Many such methods rely on assessing the average attenuation of light over a tissue area where hemoglobin is the dominant chromophore, without separating those areas corresponding to vessels and bloodless tissue. In this study, we investigate whether it is possible to determine hemoglobin levels in the blood by assessing the changes in light intensity when passing through large vessels in comparison to adjacent tissues, using this as a Hb level predictor. Using Monte Carlo light transport modeling, we evaluate the accuracy of determining hemoglobin levels via light intensity contrast and vessel widths estimated in the transmittance illumination geometry and estimate the influence of physiologically significant parameters such as vessel depth, dermis vascularization, and melanin content in the epidermis on the blood Hb prediction error. The results show that physiological variations in tissue parameters limit the mean absolute error of this method to ~15 g/L for blood Hb levels varying in the 60–160 g/L range, which finding is also supported by experimental data obtained for volunteers with different total blood Hb levels that have been determined invasively. We believe the application of new approaches to the non-invasive assessment of Hb levels will lead to the creation of reliable and accurate devices that are applicable in point-of-care and clinical practice.