Medical Applications of NIR Spectroscopy

In recent years, near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has seen much progress in instrumentation and measurement techniques. It has been used for monitoring in many fields of analytical spectroscopy. Examples are the characterization of materials from processes of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry in addition to the broad field of food industrial and biotechnological applications. Another important field for NIR spectroscopy is found within the medical sciences with topics such as clinical chemistry, sensing and monitoring of changes of homeostasis of the body, with biofluids and tissues from many organs involved. Here, in vitro laboratory work and in vivo monitoring must be mentioned. Regarding instrumentation, laboratory analyzers are kept firmly in our view, but point-of-care (POC) applications need also to be taken into account. Sensing devices for non-invasive measurements on special parameters such as blood glucose and hemoglobin or information on the redox status of tissues is another broad area with oxygenation of hemoglobin and myoglobin as most important parameters. Absorption measurements are most often carried out with transmission and reflection techniques, but due to the synthesis of new marker substances, also fluorescence measurements in the NIR spectral range become more advanced, especially for imaging and immunoassay developments.

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Acknowledgements

I am tremendously grateful for the collaboration and enormous support from my collaborator Sven Delbeck over many years at the Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences in Iserlohn during research and for teaching. Some earlier work was done at the Leibniz-Institute for Analytical Sciences-ISAS, my former research institute in Dortmund. I am grateful for the productive working atmosphere, which had been very much appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences, South-Westphalia University of Applied Sciences, Frauenstuhlweg 31, 58644, Iserlohn, Germany Herbert Michael Heise
  1. Herbert Michael Heise