JPH09113439A - Method and apparatus for measuring organic component - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To measure a specific component in an organism spectroscopically and noninvasively with high sensitively using an ATR prism. SOLUTION: The inventive apparatus measures a specific component in an organism. A light is transmitted through a fiber 2 to an ATR prism 1 arranged to be wrapped or held by the part of the body of a subject to be measured. A spectrum is taken out from the part 3 to be measured using a signal from the ATR prism 1 and a specific component in organism is determined based on the spectrum thus obtained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a biological component measuring method and a biological component measuring apparatus using the method, which makes it possible to non-invasively measure the amount of a specific component in the living body of animals including humans.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are various methods for measuring the amount of a specific component in the living body of animals including humans.
A sample containing components in the living body must be collected from the living body. Then, the amount of the specific component in the living body is qualitatively or quantitatively determined by a method according to the target component in the collected sample. Conventionally, in order to obtain an index for diagnosing diseases and health care of animals including humans, for example, in order to qualitatively or quantitatively determine the components in blood, blood collection must be performed, but such an invasive method is not covered. It is very painful for the examiner. In particular, when measuring the amount of change over time of a specific component in a living body, blood collection must be repeated. Also,
There are various risks in the collection of biological samples because of the risk of accidents that occur at the time of collection and infection with bacteria and viruses from the collection port. However, in some cases, non-invasive diagnostic methods such as X-ray and MRI have also appeared, but these methods cannot measure the amount of components in the living body.

[0003]

A method for non-invasively measuring the amount of a specific component in a living body of an animal including a human, which is analyzed by an ATR (attenuated total reflection) prism used in the method. Light is incident on the ATR prism having a higher refractive index than the measurement object, and the reflected light at the boundary surface between the measurement object and the ATR prism is observed. Keep the incident angle larger than the critical angle,
Almost total reflection occurs at the boundary surface. However, if the DUT has light absorption, total total reflection does not occur,
Part of the energy of the incident light leaks to the DUT side,
The reflectance is reduced accordingly. This state is called attenuated total reflection, and the spectroscopic analysis method utilizing this reflection measurement is called internal reflection spectroscopy or ATR spectroscopy. Up to now, the contact of the object to be measured with the ATR prism has been generally on one side of the surface for total reflection. Therefore, there are problems such as low measurement sensitivity.

[0004]

The present invention enables non-invasive measurement of the amount of a specific component in a living body at any time and any number of times without imposing a burden on a subject, and covers both sides of an ATR prism. The measurement sensitivity is increased by sandwiching the body with a part of the body of the examiner and increasing the number of reflections inside the ATR prism.

By performing multivariate analysis processing on the light spectrum emitted from the ATR prism, a highly accurate biological component measuring method becomes possible.

A biological component measuring apparatus using the above method is provided.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Light is incident on an ATR prism, and a measurement target part which is a part of a subject's body is placed so as to wrap or sandwich the ATR prism,
The optical spectrum emitted from the prism is taken and subjected to processing such as multivariate analysis to quantitatively measure the amount of the specific component in the living body. By sandwiching both sides of the ATR prism with a part of the subject's body, the number of internal reflections of the ATR prism is doubled to increase the measurement sensitivity. After performing multivariate analysis processing on the obtained spectrum, the amount of a specific component in a living body is quantitatively measured from a calibration curve created in advance.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of an embodiment of the biological information measuring device according to the present invention. The biological information measuring device of FIG. 3 has an ATR prism 1, which internally attenuates and totally reflects incident light.
A light source / spectroscopic unit 5 that emits light incident on the ATR prism,
The light emitted from the ATR prism is received, the obtained spectrum is converted into the amount of biological component, and output is displayed. Detection / display unit 6, light source / spectroscopic unit 5 to ATR prism 1, or detection / display from ATR prism 1. And a fiber 2 for transmitting light to the section 6.

As shown in FIG. 1, the ATR prism 1 is sandwiched by two lips 3 of a subject, which face each other and are internally reflected. As a result, the light emitted from the light source / splitting unit 5 enters the ATR prism 1 via the fiber 2, is repeatedly attenuated and totally reflected at the boundary surface between the ATR prism 1 and the lip 3, and then is emitted.

The light emitted from the ATR prism 1 is sent to a detection / display unit 6 via a fiber 2, and the detection / display unit 6 performs processing such as multivariate analysis on the basis of this optical spectrum to detect a living body. It is converted to the amount of component and this value is displayed.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the same effect can be obtained by sandwiching two facing surfaces for internal reflection with the finger 4 of the subject.

[0013]

According to the present invention, a method for non-invasively measuring the amount of a specific component in a living body, in which both sides of an ATR prism are sandwiched by a part of the subject's body, the number of reflections inside the ATR prism is increased. Is doubled, the sensitivity of biological component measurement can be increased.

Further, according to the present invention, by performing multivariate analysis processing on the optical spectrum emitted from the ATR prism, it is possible to measure the biological component with high accuracy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing an ATR prism sandwiched between lips.

FIG. 2 is a diagram in which an ATR prism is sandwiched between fingers.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a suitable biological component measuring device using an ATR prism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ATR Prism 2 Fiber 3 Lip 4 Finger 5 Light Source / Spectroscope 6 Detection / Display

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A biological component measuring method for non-invasively measuring a specific component in a living body by using ATR internal reflection spectroscopy, which is a method for measuring internal reflection excluding a light incident surface and a light emitting surface of an ATR prism. The object to be measured is brought into contact with the two surfaces facing each other, the light is made incident on the ATR prism, and the incident light is attenuated and totally reflected inside the ATR prism. A biological component measuring method for measuring the amount of a component. 2. The method for measuring a biological component according to claim 1, wherein the specific component is a carbohydrate such as glucose. 3. The method for measuring a biological component according to claim 1, wherein the specific component is a protein such as albumin or enzyme. 4. The method for measuring a biological component according to claim 1, wherein the specific component is a lipid such as cholesterol or neutral fat. 5. The method for measuring a biological component according to claim 1, wherein the specific component is a nucleic acid such as DNA or RNA. 6. The method for measuring a biological component according to claim 1, wherein the specific component is a substance necessary for in vivo metabolism such as vitamins and coenzymes, or an in-vivo metabolite. 7. The biological component measurement according to claim 1, wherein the amount of biological component is measured from a calibration curve prepared in advance after multivariate analysis processing of the obtained spectrum. Method. 8. The method for measuring a biological component according to claim 1, wherein the light is infrared light, more preferably near infrared light. 9. The lips are sandwiched between two facing surfaces for internal reflection of the ATR prism.
9. The method for measuring a biological component according to any one of items 1 to 8. 10. The method for measuring a biological component according to claim 1, wherein the two surfaces of the ATR prism which face each other for internal reflection are sandwiched by fingers. 11. The method for measuring a biological component according to claim 1, wherein the two opposing surfaces for internal reflection of the ATR prism are sandwiched by the palms of both hands. 12. The method for measuring a biological component according to claim 1, wherein the two opposing surfaces of the ATR prism that cause internal reflection are sandwiched between armpits. 13. A biological component measuring apparatus for non-invasively measuring a specific component in a living body by using ATR internal reflection spectroscopy, wherein an ATR prism and an ATR prism for internally attenuating and totally reflecting incident light are provided. And a photodetector for receiving the light emitted from the ATR prism.