Invasive Chemometry

Abstract

The invention relates to methods and devices for assessing one or more components of a selected tissue in an animal. The present invention permits non-invasive assessment of tissue components in a body structure containing multiple tissue types by assessing multiple regions of the animal's body for an optical characteristic of the tissue of interest and separately assessing one or more optical (e.g., Raman or NIR) characteristics of the tissue component for one or more regions that exhibit the optical characteristic of the tissue of interest.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 irradiating at least one region of a biological sample; detecting light scattered by the irradiated region to generate a first optical data set; analyzing the first optical data set to assess at least one optical characteristic of the sample, wherein the optical characteristic is associated with a disease state.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the sample further comprises a blood sample. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the sample further comprises a serum sample. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising generating at least one optical image representative of the sample. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the first optical data set further comprises at least one Raman spectroscopic data set. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising combining the first optical data set with at least one optical image representative of the sample. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the first optical data set further comprises at least one of: a fluorescence spectroscopic data set and an infrared spectroscopic data set. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the optical characteristic further comprises at least one of: peak position, peak shape, and adherence to selection rules. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the optical characteristic further comprises at least one relative peak intensity, wherein the relative peak intensity compares two or more peaks. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein assessing further comprises comparing at least one optical characteristic to at least one reference value, wherein each reference value is associated with a known disease state. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein the comparing is further achieved by applying at least one chemometric technique. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the disease state further comprises at least one of: normal, cancer, and a non-cancerous disease. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the sample is irradiated using monochromatic light having a wavelength of about 0.78 micrometers to 2.5 micrometers. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the optical characteristic is associated with at least one component of the biological sample. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising assessing a concentration of the component in the biological sample. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  wherein a concentration of the component is associated with a disease state. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14  wherein the component comprises at least one extracellular material. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14  wherein the component further comprises at least one chemical component. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18  wherein the chemical component further comprises at least one of: dissolved oxygen, dissolved carbon dioxide, glucose, urea, lactic acid, creatine, bicarbonate, an electrolyte, a protein, cholesterol, a triglyceride, a lipid other than a triglyceride, and hemoglobin. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1  wherein multiple points of the biological sample are assessed to generate the first optical data set. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20  wherein the multiple points are assessed simultaneously. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising passing the light scattered by a sample through at least one of: filter, an interferometer, a dispersive spectrometer, and a fiber array spectral translator device. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22  wherein the filter further comprises at tunable filter. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising targeting the region of the biological sample by assessing an optical characteristic. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the irradiating, detecting, and analyzing are performed non-invasively. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 1  wherein at least one of the irradiating and detecting are performed invasively. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26  wherein the biological sample is invasively accessed via at least one of: an artery, a vein, a capillary.