JP2002355246A - Accessory for biological light measurement and biological light meter - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an accessory for biological light measurement and a biologi cal light meter which is fit on a measurement spot, has good fitting feeling, and can perform highly correct and reliable light measurement. SOLUTION: A plurality of optical fibers connected to a light emitting part and light intercepting part, a plurality of sockets snap supporting to bring the tip end of the optical fiber in contact with a measurement spot on a body, and support members to support the sockets on prescribed arrangement are equipped on this accessory. The optical fiber has the tip end bent in almost 90 deg. and the bend part and the tip end are protected by a socket. A cushioning member is equipped to the side facing the measurement spot so as to surround the tip end of the optical fiber. The accessory has good fitting feeling and the tip end of the optical fiber softly abuts on a measurement spot causing to correctly measure biological light without shifting the relation between the tip end of the optical fiber and the measurement spot.

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 measuring 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 in order 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
It is composed of a plastic plate molded with a curvature in accordance with the shape of the mounting portion (generally the head), and a socket having the tip of an optical fiber fixed to a hole formed in the shell. The tip of the optical fiber is resiliently held in this socket using a spring or the like, and when the socket is fitted into the hole of the shell, the tip of the optical fiber contacts the measurement site of the subject to which the shell is attached. It is configured to touch.

[0004]

The tip of the optical fiber is
1 ~ 2 diameter to avoid hair and make sure abut against scalp
mm, which is very thin. When the tip of such an optical fiber is brought into close contact with the scalp by a spring,
He was uncomfortable and unsuitable for long-term measurements or for children. In addition, the spring improves the adhesion of the tip of the optical fiber to the measurement site, but if the subject moves significantly, the contact position of the optical fiber also fluctuates, making it impossible to measure signals accurately. was there.

Further, since the conventional socket supports the optical fiber in a direction normal to the head surface, the socket requires careful handling so as not to damage the exposed optical fiber outside the socket. When the measurement is performed in a state, a special pillow or the like is required so as not to damage the outer optical fiber.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a living body light measuring wearing tool which has a soft feeling of wearing and has excellent adhesion. In addition, the present invention provides a living body light measurement wearing device that does not have a positional shift even when a force that causes the subject to move laterally shifts due to movement of the subject, thereby obtaining highly reliable biological information. The purpose is to provide.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a living body optical measurement mounting device which achieves the above object, comprising: a plurality of optical fibers respectively connected to a light emitting portion or a light receiving portion;
A plurality of sockets that resiliently support the tip of each optical fiber to make contact with the measurement site of the living body, and a support member that supports the socket in a predetermined arrangement, wherein the optical fiber is approximately 90 degrees. The socket has a bent end, and the socket includes a socket body for protecting the bent portion and the end of the optical fiber, and an urging means for urging the optical fiber end toward the measurement site.

According to the mounting device of this aspect, the tip of the optical fiber is bent at substantially 90 degrees, and the bent portion and the tip are protected by the socket.
There is no risk of damaging the optical fiber outside the socket,
The operability of measurement can be improved. Further, since the outer portion is arranged not in the direction of the normal to the surface of the measurement site (that is, the surface of the support member) but in parallel with the surface of the support, the mounting device can be made compact without bulk.

In addition, a living body light measuring attachment according to a second aspect of the present invention is for mounting a plurality of optical fibers respectively connected to a light emitting unit or a light receiving unit and bringing the tip of each optical fiber into contact with a measurement site of a living body. A plurality of sockets for resiliently supporting the socket, and a support member for supporting the socket in a predetermined arrangement, wherein the support member includes a cushioning material on a side facing the measurement site. I do.

Preferably, a plurality of cushioning members are provided.
In particular, it is preferable to provide so as to surround the tip of the optical fiber projecting from each socket toward the measurement site.

According to the second aspect, the provision of the cushioning material on the support member improves the adhesion of the support member to the measurement site, and facilitates the contact position of the tip of the optical fiber even by the movement of the subject. There is no shift. Thereby, the reliability of the measurement can be improved. In addition, the contact of the tip of the optical fiber with the measurement site is eased, the wearing feeling is good, and the child is less likely to feel uncomfortable even in long-term measurement.

A living body optical measurement mounting device according to a third aspect of the present invention is used for bringing a plurality of optical fibers respectively connected to a light emitting unit or a light receiving unit into contact with a measurement site of a living body. A plurality of sockets that resiliently support, and a support member that supports the sockets in a predetermined arrangement, wherein the support member is on a side facing the measurement site,
A light shielding member is provided for separating the ends of the optical fibers protruding from the socket.

According to the third aspect, the tip of each optical fiber is separated by the light shielding member, so that the light from the light emitting section is irradiated into the living body even when the tip of the optical fiber does not reliably hit the measurement site. It becomes possible. The light-shielding member can also serve as a cushioning material, whereby the same effect as in the second aspect can be obtained.

In the biological optical measurement device of the present invention, the tip of an optical fiber connected to a light irradiating unit for irradiating light to the living body and a light detecting unit for detecting light transmitted through the living body is attached to the subject. For this purpose, any one of the mounting tools according to the first to third aspects described above is used as the mounting means.

According to the living body light measuring device of the present invention, the mounting member which has good adhesion between the support member for supporting the tip of the optical fiber and the measuring portion and does not cause displacement or the like at the time of measurement is used. And highly reliable biological information can be obtained. In addition, the use of the wearing tool having good operability and wearing feeling is suitable for optical measurement for a relatively long time and optical measurement for children.

[0016]

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 view 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 section 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 light of a predetermined wavelength from the light source unit 11 to apply modulation, and irradiates the subject 1 with the light subjected to different modulation 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 apparatus has a probe 40 for attaching the tip of the above-mentioned irradiation optical fiber 14 and the tip of the detection optical fiber 21 to the subject.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a head-mounted probe 4.
Indicates 0. The head-mounted mounting tool is composed of a pair of shells 41 corresponding to the left and right temporal lobes, and each shell is connected by a connecting tool (not shown), and a fixed string 42 for fixing to a head measurement site is provided. Have. The length of the fixing string 42 can be adjusted by adjusting means (not shown).

At the tip of the optical fiber, the diameter of the portion in contact with the head surface is reduced to, for example, about 1 to 2 mm.
As shown in the figure, the bent portion has a shape bent at approximately 90 degrees, and is fixed to the socket 50 so as to protect the bent portion and the tip. That is, the socket main body 51 has a substantially cylindrical shape, and a hole for penetrating the optical fiber is formed on the side surface and the lower end thereof. With this structure, the bending portion of the optical fiber and the optical fiber outside the socket are formed. Can be protected. A spring 52 for urging the tip of the optical fiber downward in the drawing is fixed inside the cylindrical main body 51, and the tip of the optical fiber is biased so as to protrude from a hole formed in the lower surface of the cylinder. are doing. The hole formed in the cylindrical side surface is longer than the diameter of the optical fiber so as to allow the optical fiber to move up and down.

The tip of the optical fiber fixed to the socket 50 thus configured is detachable from a through hole of a shell 41 described later, and a predetermined tip of the optical fiber is inserted into a corresponding through hole at the time of measurement. It is inserted and fixed to the probe 50. In this case, for example, identification information such as assigning the same number to each through hole corresponding to each socket 50 and performing the same coloring so that the corresponding relationship with the corresponding through hole can be visually recognized. Is preferred.

The shell 41 is a plate-like member made of plastic, elastomer, or the like, and has a curved shape conforming to the subject's head. As shown in FIG. 3, the shell 41 has a plurality of through holes 43 for receiving the socket 50 to which the tip of the optical fiber is fixed. Through hole 4
Numerals 3 are arranged on the lattice points of the matrix, so that the tip of the optical fiber abuts on the measurement site according to the arrangement. In the present embodiment, as an example, the number of grid points is 9, and the number of measurement channels, that is, the number of measurement positions is 9.
Shows the case of 12. 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.

A cushioning buffer member 44 having a cushioning property is fixed to the measurement site 60 side of the shell 41. When the probe 40 is mounted, the cushioning member 44 softens the contact between the shell 41 and the tip of the optical fiber and enhances the adhesiveness. It is made of material with By configuring with such a material, a feeling of fitting to the subject at the time of wearing is improved, and even if the subject moves, it can follow the movement and perform stable measurement.

Such a buffering member 44 can be provided, for example, at the periphery of the shell 41, but is preferably disposed around each through hole 43. As a result, the weight of the tip of the optical fiber by the spring 52 can be dispersed, and the hit can be reduced. Further, the buffer member 44 is connected to the through hole 4.
When it is arranged around the optical fiber 3, it can function as a means for blocking light emitted from the tip of the optical fiber.
Thus, even when the tip of the optical fiber is slightly away from the measurement site 60, light can be reliably irradiated to the measurement site, and the optical fiber for light reception can be prevented from picking up surrounding light and becoming noise.

In order to ensure such a function as the light shielding means, the buffer member 44 has a shape surrounding the through hole 43, for example, a cylindrical shape, and is impermeable to light used for optical measurement. Preferably, there is. For this reason, for example, a material colored black is used as a material forming the buffer member 44.

The probe 40 thus configured adjusts the distance between the shells 41 in accordance with the subject, and then applies a pair of shells 41 to both sides of the head, as shown in FIG. To secure it to the head. In this state, the sockets 50 to which the ends of the optical fibers (14, 21) of the optical measuring device are fixed are fitted into the through holes 43 of the shell 41. Then, after confirming that the tip of the optical fiber has securely contacted the scalp, the biological optical measurement device is operated to irradiate and receive light, and perform optical measurement.

In this case, the bent end fixed to the shell 41 of the optical fiber is protected by the socket 50. Even when the subject is laid down, the load of the subject is received by the socket 51. The burden on the user is reduced, and the risk of damage is reduced.

The presence of the buffer member 44 between the shell 41 and the measurement site 60 improves the adhesion,
Since the tip of the optical fiber can be prevented from being shifted or separated from the measurement site, the reliability of the measurement is increased. In particular, when the buffering member 44 is provided so as to surround the tip of the optical fiber, the contact of the tip of the optical fiber is softened, the wearing feeling is improved, and the irradiation light is reliably irradiated to the measurement site, Can be reliably received, and signal saturation caused by receiving only some of the optical fibers can be eliminated.

Although the embodiment of the living body optical measurement wearing device of the present invention has been described above, 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 buffer member 44 also functions as a light blocking member has been described, but a light blocking member may be provided separately from the buffer member 44. In this case, for example, the buffer member 44 is arranged in a part of the plurality of through holes provided in the shell 41 (for example, a part corresponding to the light receiving optical fiber), and the other part (for example, a part corresponding to the irradiation optical fiber). The arrangement can be arbitrarily changed, for example, by arranging a light-shielding member. In the above embodiment,
As the shell, a mesh-like shell may be used instead of a plate-like shell that covers the entire measurement site.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the configuration of the optical fiber tip bent to approximately 90 degrees and the socket for protecting the tip of the optical fiber according to the first aspect of the present invention are replaced with the buffer member or the third feature which is the feature of the second aspect. Although the case where the light-shielding member is combined with the light-shielding member, which is a feature of the aspect, has been described, the present invention provides the first, second,
The present invention includes an optical measurement mounting device provided with the features of the third aspect separately or in any combination.

[0033]

According to the present invention, there is provided a mounting device for optical measurement which has excellent adhesion to a measurement site, does not displace the optical fiber during measurement, and can perform highly reliable measurement. . Further, according to the present invention, there is provided an optical measurement attachment having a good wearing feeling and excellent operability at the time of measurement.

[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 cross-sectional view showing details of the living body light measurement attachment of FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Light irradiation part 14 ... Irradiation light fiber 20 ... Light detection part 21 ... Detection optical fiber 30 ... Signal processing part 40 ... Probe (attachment tool) 41 ... Shell 43: Through-hole 44: Buffer member (light shielding member) 50: Socket 51: Socket body 52: Spring (biasing means)

Claims (6)

[Claims] A plurality of optical fibers respectively connected to a light emitting unit or a light receiving unit; a plurality of sockets for resiliently supporting a tip of each optical fiber to make contact with a measurement site of a living body; A supporting member for supporting the optical fiber in a predetermined arrangement, the optical fiber has a tip bent at approximately 90 degrees, the socket is a socket body for protecting a bent portion and the tip of the optical fiber, and the optical fiber tip. And a biasing means for biasing the body toward the measurement site. 2. A plurality of optical fibers respectively connected to a light emitting unit or a light receiving unit, a plurality of sockets for resiliently supporting a tip of each optical fiber to make contact with a measurement site of a living body, and the socket A support member for supporting in a predetermined arrangement, wherein the support member includes a cushioning material on a side facing the measurement site. 3. The living body optical measurement mounting device according to claim 2, wherein the cushioning member is formed so as to surround a tip end of the optical fiber projecting from the socket. 4. A plurality of optical fibers respectively connected to a light emitting unit or a light receiving unit, a plurality of sockets for resiliently supporting a tip of each optical fiber to make contact with a measurement site of a living body, and the socket A support member for supporting in a predetermined arrangement, wherein the support member includes, on a side facing the measurement site, a light-shielding member that separates optical fiber tips protruding from the socket. Mounting equipment. 5. The wearing device for measuring biological light according to claim 4, wherein the light shielding member has a cushioning property. 6. 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 tool according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is provided as the mounting means.