Effect of mechanical optical clearing on near‐infrared spectroscopy

Near‐infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) is a broadly utilized technology with many emerging applications including clinical diagnostics, sports medicine, and functional neuroimaging, to name a few. For functional brain imaging NIR light is delivered at multiple wavelengths through the scalp and skull to the brain to enable spatial oximetry measurements. Dynamic changes in brain oxygenation are highly correlated with neural stimulation, activation, and function. Unfortunately, NIRS is currently limited by its low spatial resolution, shallow penetration depth, and, perhaps most importantly, signal corruption due to light interactions with superficial non‐target tissues such as scalp and skull. In response to these issues, we have combined the non‐invasive and rapidly reversible method of mechanical tissue optical clearing (MOC) with a commercially available NIRS system. MOC utilizes a compressive loading force on tissue, causing the lateral displacement of blood and water, while simultaneously thinning the tissue. A MOC‐NIRS Breath Hold Test displayed a ∼3.5‐fold decrease in the time‐averaged standard deviation between channels, consequentially promoting greater channel agreement. A Skin Pinch Test was implemented to negate brain and muscle activity from affecting the recorded signal. These results displayed a 2.5–3.0 fold increase in raw signal amplitude. Existing NIRS instrumentation has been further integrated within a custom helmet device to provide a uniform force distribution across the NIRS sensor array. These results showed a gradual decrease in time‐averaged standard deviation among channels with an increase in applied pressure. Through these experiments, and the development of the MOC‐NIRS helmet device, MOC appears to provide enhancement of NIRS technology beyond its current limitations. Lasers Surg. Med. 47:495–502, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.