Analysis of sensitivity and optical path-length in non-invasive measurement of glucose with near infrared spectroscopy

Non-invasive glucose monitoring with optical methods has obtained increasing interest, in that the methods have shown great benefit for diabetes. Nevertheless, low sensitivity and signal to noise ratio (ratio of effective photons) are two major difficulties in non-invasively NIR spectral monitoring of blood glucose concentration. Designing the optical probe properly is one of the effective ways to improve measuring sensitivity and ratio of effective photons. In this paper, definition about ratio of effective photons in measurement of glucose is introduced. And then effect of glucose on optical properties of human skin is analyzed, based on this, two kind of sensitivities for diffuse reflectance, namely sensitivity to absorption and that to scattering, is derived. To investigate the ratio of effective photons and sensitivities, Monte Carlo simulations have been performed on a three-layered media with optical parameters similar to those of human skin. The results have shown that (1) high ratio of effective photons, even as high as 60%, can be obtained by choosing proper the separation between source and detector; (2) sensitivity of diffuse reflectance to absorption and scattering has different dependence on source-detector separation, which enables one can have different options by making use of different effect from glucose level changing. In the end, some suggestions have been put forward to improve precision of measurement of blood glucose.