TY - JOUR
T1 - Non-invasive quantification of total hemoglobin concentrations by visible-light spectroscopic optical coherence tomography
T2 - a validation study on healthy volunteers
AU - Cuartas-Vélez, Carlos
AU - Gómez-Gallego, Isabella
AU - Bosschaart, Nienke
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Optica Publishing Group.
Financial transaction number:
2500175263
PY - 2025/4/1
Y1 - 2025/4/1
N2 - Clinically, a high demand exists for the noninvasive assessment of total hemoglobin concentrations in vulnerable patient groups. Despite the sensitivity of many optical modalities to the absorption of hemoglobin, it has remained challenging to optically measure hemoglobin concentrations noninvasively with sufficient accuracy. Compared to other optical modalities, visible-light spectroscopic optical coherence tomography (vis-sOCT) has the unique ability to quantify optical properties within highly confined tissue volumes. However, total hemoglobin quantification in vivo is still limited due to a lack of dedicated acquisition schemes, processing methods, and validation against a gold standard. In this work, we introduce an approach that combines optical angiography with spatially resolved visible-light spectroscopy to obtain clinically representative estimations of the total hemoglobin concentration in the skin microcirculation. We validate our approach in vivo on a group of 27 healthy volunteers against hemoglobin measurements on venous blood samples with a commercial blood analyzer. The measured hemoglobin concentration by vis-sOCT correlates moderately, but significantly with the blood analyzer (R = 0.47, p = 0.015). This approach quantifies hemoglobin with a mean bias of 0.6 g dL−1 and an average standard deviation of 1.3 g dL−1 in the healthy hemoglobin range (14–19 g dL−1). Moreover, the results highlight the known influence of gender on the comparison between the microcirculatory and venous hemoglobin concentration. This observed influence of gender further suggests that vis-sOCT is sensitive to microcirculatory changes in hemoglobin concentration.
AB - Clinically, a high demand exists for the noninvasive assessment of total hemoglobin concentrations in vulnerable patient groups. Despite the sensitivity of many optical modalities to the absorption of hemoglobin, it has remained challenging to optically measure hemoglobin concentrations noninvasively with sufficient accuracy. Compared to other optical modalities, visible-light spectroscopic optical coherence tomography (vis-sOCT) has the unique ability to quantify optical properties within highly confined tissue volumes. However, total hemoglobin quantification in vivo is still limited due to a lack of dedicated acquisition schemes, processing methods, and validation against a gold standard. In this work, we introduce an approach that combines optical angiography with spatially resolved visible-light spectroscopy to obtain clinically representative estimations of the total hemoglobin concentration in the skin microcirculation. We validate our approach in vivo on a group of 27 healthy volunteers against hemoglobin measurements on venous blood samples with a commercial blood analyzer. The measured hemoglobin concentration by vis-sOCT correlates moderately, but significantly with the blood analyzer (R = 0.47, p = 0.015). This approach quantifies hemoglobin with a mean bias of 0.6 g dL−1 and an average standard deviation of 1.3 g dL−1 in the healthy hemoglobin range (14–19 g dL−1). Moreover, the results highlight the known influence of gender on the comparison between the microcirculatory and venous hemoglobin concentration. This observed influence of gender further suggests that vis-sOCT is sensitive to microcirculatory changes in hemoglobin concentration.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105001640930&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1364/BOE.549671
DO - 10.1364/BOE.549671
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105001640930
SN - 2156-7085
VL - 16
SP - 1569
EP - 1581
JO - Biomedical optics express
JF - Biomedical optics express
IS - 4
ER -