JP2002282253A - Application instrument for biolight measurement and biophotonic measurement device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an application instrument for biophotonic measurement and biolight measurement device enabling close application to a region to be measured, and preventing a change in shape after applied so as to make accurate and high-reliable light measurement. SOLUTION: In this application instrument 40 for biophotonic measurement, the tips of a plurality of optical fibers are supported in a designated array, and brought into contact with a region to be measured of the organism. The instrument 40 is provided with a plurality of sockets 41 for fixing the tips of the optical fibers, and a support member 42 for supporting the sockets in a designated array. The support member is formed by a flexible material and a wire rod embedded in the flexible material. The application instrument is used to height the degree of adhesion after applied and keep its shape, whereby the position relationship between the tips of the optical fibers and the region to be measured is not changed so as to make an accurate measurement.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a living body light measuring device, and more particularly to a mounting device for mounting an optical fiber of a living body light measuring device to a subject.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A living body optical measurement device irradiates a living body with light of a predetermined wavelength and measures a change in the amount of light transmitted through the living body, thereby measuring blood circulation, hemodynamics, hemoglobin change, etc. inside the living body. In particular, a biological light measurement device that obtains information, particularly, by arranging a plurality of light irradiation units and light receiving units so as to obtain blood flow information in a relatively wide range as a topography, is, for example, a local focus of epileptic seizures. It is expected to be used for research on brain functions such as identification and clinical applications.

[0003] In such a living body optical measurement device, a mounting device called a shell is used to contact the subject with the ends of the optical fibers connected to the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit maintained in a predetermined arrangement. It is used. This shell is
As shown in FIG. 5, it is composed of a plastic plate 50 molded with a curvature according to the shape of the mounting site (generally the head). For example, 3x
A hole is formed in the lattice point of the lattice 3 and a socket 51 for fixing the tip of the optical fiber is attached to this hole. On the other hand, the tip of the optical fiber is elastically held by a spring or the like in a male socket corresponding to the structure of the socket, and when the male socket is fitted into the socket of the shell, the tip of the optical fiber is Is configured to come into contact with the measurement site of the subject to which the shell is attached.

[0004]

However, the shape (curvature) of the head greatly varies from person to person, and a gap of a size that cannot be ignored between the measurement site 60 and the shell 50 may be formed as shown in FIG. is there. If such a gap occurs, the optical fiber will not reach the measurement site even if the optical fiber is maximally protruded by the elastic force of a spring or the like, and accurate measurement cannot be performed. If the tip of the optical fiber is made longer by predicting such a gap in advance, the weight of the shell at the time of fixing the optical fiber becomes heavy, and the tip of the optical fiber is careless when it is not fixed to the shell. There is also a problem that it is easily damaged by handling or the like. Further, it is necessary to avoid hair in order for the fiber tip to abut on the scalp. However, if the distance from the shell to the scalp becomes longer, there is a problem that it takes time to avoid the hair and the workability deteriorates.

When a soft material such as an elastomer is used in place of such a rigid plastic material, it is possible to increase the adhesion between the scalp and the shell, but the elasticity of the hair and the scalp can be improved. The shape cannot be maintained due to movement or the like, and as a result, accurate measurement may not be performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a biological light measurement mounting device which can be mounted in close contact with a measurement site, does not change its shape after mounting, and can perform accurate optical measurement. I do. Another object of the present invention is to provide a biological light measurement mounting device that is lightweight, has a good mounting feeling, and is easily mounted. A further object of the present invention is to provide a living body optical measurement device that can obtain highly reliable living body information by employing such a wearing tool.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a living body measuring instrument for living body, which supports the ends of a plurality of optical fibers in a predetermined arrangement so as to come into contact with a measurement site of a living body. A mounting device for measurement, comprising: a plurality of sockets for fixing a tip of the optical fiber; and a support member for supporting the socket in a predetermined arrangement, wherein the support member is made of a flexible material, And a wire embedded in the material.

According to the wearing tool having the above structure, the degree of adhesion to the measurement site can be increased, and the shape after the wearing can be maintained. As a result, the positional relationship between the tip of the optical fiber and the measurement site can be maintained without deviation, so that accurate measurement can be performed.

[0009] In the bio-optical measuring instrument according to the present invention, preferably, the supporting member has a mesh structure, and the socket is provided at a lattice point of the mesh structure.

By using a mesh structure, the weight of the mounting device can be reduced, and the state of contact between the tip of the optical fiber and the measurement site can be confirmed through the perforated portion, work to avoid hair, etc. Can be performed, and the reliability and easiness of the operation can be improved.

[0011] Further, the living body optical measurement mounting device of the present invention is one in which the support member and the socket are integrally molded. As a result, the work of attaching the socket to the support member becomes unnecessary, and the number of parts is reduced as compared with the conventional socket, so that the weight of the mounting tool can be reduced. Further, since the socket is also made of the same flexible material as the support member, the socket on the optical fiber side can be easily fitted by utilizing the flexibility.

Further, the living body light measuring attachment of the present invention uses an aluminum wire as a wire. This makes it possible to reduce the weight of the mounting device, and since aluminum is a non-magnetic material, MRI measurement can be performed with the mounting device mounted, enabling simultaneous measurement of biological light measurement and MRI.

[0013] The living body light measuring device of the present invention is configured such that tips of optical fibers connected to a light irradiating unit for irradiating light to a living body and a light detecting unit for detecting light transmitted through the living body are attached to a subject. The above-mentioned mounting tool is adopted as a mounting means for performing the mounting.

According to the living body light measuring device of the present invention, the wearing device that ensures the contact between the tip of the optical fiber and the measurement site and does not cause a displacement or the like at the time of measurement is used. Biological information can be obtained. In addition, since it is lightweight and comfortable to wear, light measurement can be easily performed on the subject in various states and during work.

[0015]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a living body light measuring apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of a living body light measuring device to which the present invention is applied. As shown, the living body light measuring device includes a light irradiating unit for irradiating a subject 1 with light. 1
0 and a light detection unit 20 for detecting light transmitted through the subject 1
A signal processing unit 30 that controls the driving of the light irradiation unit 10 and the light detection unit 20 and creates a topography representing the biological information of the subject 1 based on the amount of light detected by the light detection unit 20
And

The light irradiation unit 10 includes a plurality of optical modules 12
, An oscillating unit 13 for modulating light emitted by the optical module 12, and an irradiating optical fiber 14 connected to each optical module 12. The oscillation unit 13 applies different frequencies to the light of a predetermined wavelength from the light source unit 11 to apply modulation, and irradiates the subject 1 with the differently modulated light via a plurality of irradiation fibers 14.

The light detecting section 20 includes a detecting optical fiber 21
A photodetector 22 including a photoelectric conversion element and the like, a photodetection circuit 23 including a lock-in amplifier, an amplifier and the like,
An A / D converter 24 is provided, and the light transmitted through the subject 1 is detected by the photodetector 22 via the detection optical fiber 21.
The light detection circuit 23 converts the signal into a signal for each measurement position. This signal is converted to a digital signal by the A / D converter 24, and a topography representing, for example, a change in the amount of hemoglobin at the measurement site is formed in the signal processing unit 30.

Further, the living body light measuring device has a probe holder (mounting tool) 40 for mounting the distal end of the irradiation optical fiber 14 and the distal end of the detection optical fiber 21 to the subject.

FIG. 2 shows a probe holder 40 for mounting the head as an example. The probe folder 40 includes a support member 42 on which a socket 41 with which the tip of the fiber engages is formed, and a fixing string 43 for fixing the folder 40 to a head measurement site. In the figure, one folder 4
Although only 0 is shown, the left head folder and the right head folder are paired and connected by the fixing string 43. The length of the fixing string 43 can be adjusted by adjusting means (not shown).

The support member 42 has a lattice-like or mesh-like structure, and each socket 41 is provided at a lattice point. In the present embodiment, as an example, a case where the number of grid points is 9, and the number of measurement channels, that is, the number of measurement positions is 12, is shown. Here, since the midpoint of the light detection position and the light irradiation position is the measurement position, the required number of irradiation optical fibers and the number of detection optical fibers are 5 or 4, respectively. However, the size of the grid is not limited to this.

As shown in FIG. 3, the support member 42 comprises a wire 51 forming a skeleton and a flexible member 52 covering the wire 51 and integrally formed with the wire 51. The wire 51 is made of a metal material such as aluminum, copper, and stainless steel that can bend following the bending stress and maintain its shape after bending. Among these metallic materials, aluminum is particularly preferred in that it is lightweight and non-magnetic. The flexible member 52 is made of a soft and flexible material, such as plastic, elastomer, and gel.

The support member 42 forms a square grid and forms a ring at its nine grid points.
A hole through which the tip of the optical fiber penetrates is formed. A socket 41 is formed above the ring. Socket 41
May be attached to the ring portion in the same manner as a conventional socket made of rigid plastic, but it is preferable to form the same material as the flexible member 52 by integral molding. When the support member 42 is made of the same material,
It is possible to fix the optical fiber tip by utilizing its flexibility.

Each socket 41 is provided with identification information such as, for example, assigning the same number to the corresponding socket and optical fiber and performing the same coloring so that the corresponding relationship with the corresponding optical fiber can be visually recognized. Have been.

The probe folder 4 configured as described above
In the case of No. 0, after adjusting the distance between the folders according to the subject, a pair of folders are applied to a predetermined portion, and the fixing string 43 is fastened to the head as shown in FIG. In this state, the optical fiber (14, 2
1) Fit the tips to the corresponding sockets 40 respectively.
In this work, if there is hair between the tip of the optical fiber and the scalp, position the tip of the optical fiber so as to avoid it, or make sure that the tip of the optical fiber contacts the skin of the head You can check if you are.

After confirming that the tip of the optical fiber has securely contacted the scalp, the optical living body measuring device is operated to irradiate and receive light to perform optical measurement.

As described above, one embodiment of the wearing device for measuring living body light of the present invention has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications can be made. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the irradiation optical fiber tips and the detection optical fiber tips are alternately arranged in the form of a square lattice in the vertical and horizontal directions is shown, but other arrangements may be used. In addition, in the living body optical measurement wearing tool of the present invention, it is preferable that the support member has a mesh shape. However, as long as the support member is configured by a combination of a wire and a flexible member, other members are also included.

[0028]

According to the present invention, by using a folder in which a wire material is embedded in a soft material as a mounting tool for measuring living body light, adhesion to a measurement site is ensured, there is no displacement during measurement, and reliability is improved. Measurement can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a biological optical measurement device to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a view showing an embodiment of the wearing device for measuring biological light of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of the biological optical measurement attachment of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view showing a state in which the living body optical measurement attachment of FIG. 2 is attached.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a conventional biological light measurement attachment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a conventional problem.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Light irradiation part 14 ... Irradiation optical fiber 20 ... Light detection part 21 ... Detection optical fiber 30 ... Signal processing part 40 ... Probe folder (mounting tool) 41 ...・ Socket 42 ・ ・ ・ Support member 51 ・ ・ ・ Wire rod 52 ・ ・ ・ Flexible member

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A living body optical measurement mounting device for supporting the tips of a plurality of optical fibers in a predetermined arrangement and bringing the tips into contact with a measurement site of a living body, comprising a plurality of sockets for fixing the tips of the optical fibers. A supporting member for supporting the socket in a predetermined arrangement,
The mounting member for living body light measurement, wherein the support member is made of a flexible material and a wire embedded in the flexible material. 2. The living body optical measurement attachment according to claim 1, wherein said support member has a mesh structure, and said socket is provided at a lattice point of said mesh structure. 3. The living body optical measurement attachment according to claim 1, wherein the support member and the socket are integrally molded. 4. The living body optical measurement attachment according to claim 1, wherein the wire is an aluminum wire. 5. A light irradiator for irradiating a living body with light,
A light detection unit that detects light transmitted through the living body, a plurality of optical fibers that connect the light irradiation unit and the light detection unit, and a tip of the plurality of optical fibers that is supported in a predetermined arrangement to measure the living body. A living body light measuring device comprising: a mounting means for bringing the device into contact with a living body, wherein the mounting device according to any one of claims 1 to 4 is provided as the mounting means.