Human skull translucency: post mortem studies

P Sawosz; S Wojtkiewicz; M Kacprzak; W Weigl; A Borowska-Solonynko; P Krajewski; K Bejm; D Milej; B Ciszek; R Maniewski; A Liebert

doi:10.1364/BOE.7.005010

Human skull translucency: post mortem studies

Biomed Opt Express. 2016 Nov 8;7(12):5010-5020. doi: 10.1364/BOE.7.005010. eCollection 2016 Dec 1.

Authors

P Sawosz¹, S Wojtkiewicz¹, M Kacprzak¹, W Weigl², A Borowska-Solonynko³, P Krajewski³, K Bejm¹, D Milej¹, B Ciszek⁴, R Maniewski¹, A Liebert¹

Affiliations

¹ Nalecz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
² Department of Surgical Sciences/Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Uppsala University, Akademiska Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden.
³ Forensic Medicine Department, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
⁴ Department of Descriptive and Clinical Anatomy, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.

Abstract

Measurements of optical translucency of human skulls were carried out. An incandescent light source and a CCD camera were used to measure the distribution of light transmitted through the skull in 10 subjects post-mortem. We noticed that intra-individual differences in optical translucency may be up to 100 times but inter-individual translucency differences across the skull reach 10⁵ times. Based on the measurement results, a "theoretical" experiment was simulated. Monte-Carlo calculations were used in order to evaluate the influence of the differences in optical translucency of the skull on results of NIRS measurements. In these calculations a functional stimulation was done, in which the oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin concentrations in the brain cortex change by 5μM and -5μM respectively. The maximal discrepancies between assumed hemoglobin concentration changes and hemoglobin concentration changes estimated with Monte-Carlo simulation may reach 50% depending of the translucency of the skull.

Keywords: (170.0170) Medical optics and biotechnology; (170.6930) Tissue.