Dynamic OCT for physiological functions of micro organs in human fingers

Masamitsu Haruna; Masato Ohmi; Yoshihiro Ueda; Toshie Fuji; Akihiro Yamada; Hiroyuki Saigusa; Mitsuo Kuwabara

doi:10.1117/12.754644

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8 January 2008 Dynamic OCT for physiological functions of micro organs in human fingers

Masamitsu Haruna, Masato Ohmi, Yoshihiro Ueda, Toshie Fuji, Akihiro Yamada, Hiroyuki Saigusa, Mitsuo Kuwabara

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Proceedings Volume 6826, Optics in Health Care and Biomedical Optics III; 682603 (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.754644
Event: Photonics Asia 2007, 2007, Beijing, China

Abstract

OCT is a powerful tool for detection of physiological functions of micro organs underneath the human skin surface, besides the clinical application to ophthalmology, as recently demonstrated by the authors' group. In particular, dynamics of peripheral vessels and eccrin sweat glands can be observed clearly in the time-sequential OCT images. The physiological functions of these micro organs, sweating and blood circulation, are controlled by the skin sympathetic nerve in response to externally applied stress. In this paper, we present microscopically analytical results based on the dynamic OCT of the micro organs in human fingers. In sweating dynamics, it is found that a spiral sweat duct is expanded by abrupt increase of sweat due to application of stress to a volunteer, resulting in remarkable increase of the reflection light intensity of the spiral duct in OCT. Mental-stress-induced sweating in each eccrin sweat gland, therefore, is analyzed quantitatively. Furthermore, dynamic OCT observation of peripheral vessels is interesting. A small vein of a human finger is observed clearly by the TD-OCT, where the vein expands and contracts repeatedly even in the resting state for temperature control on the fingertip. A change in the cross-sectional area of the vein exceeds 80 % for a young volunteer. The dynamic OCT will allow us to propose novel diagnoses of excessive sweating and diseases related to the sympathetic nerve.

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Masamitsu Haruna, Masato Ohmi, Yoshihiro Ueda, Toshie Fuji, Akihiro Yamada, Hiroyuki Saigusa, and Mitsuo Kuwabara "Dynamic OCT for physiological functions of micro organs in human fingers", Proc. SPIE 6826, Optics in Health Care and Biomedical Optics III, 682603 (8 January 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.754644

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