Towards novel compact laser sources for non-invasive diagnostics and treatment

Abstract

An important field of application of lasers is biomedical optics. Here, they offer great utilityfor diagnosis, therapy and surgery. For the development of novel methods of laser-basedbiomedical diagnostics careful study of light propagation in biological tissues is necessary toenhance our understanding of the optical measurements undertaken, increase research anddevelopment capacity and the diagnostic reliability of optical technologies.Ultimately, fulfilling these requirements will increase uptake in clinical applications of laserbased diagnostics and therapeutics. To address these challenges informative biomarkersrelevant to the biological and physiological function or disease state of the organism must beselected. These indicators are the results of the analysis of tissues and cells, such as blood.For non-invasive diagnostics peripheral blood, cells and tissue can potentially providecomprehensive information on the condition of the human organism. A detailed study of thelight scattering and absorption characteristics can quickly detect physiological andmorphological changes in the cells due to thermal, chemical, antibiotic treatments, etc [1-5].The selection of a laser source to study the structure of biological particles also benefits fromthe fact that gross pathological changes are not induced and diagnostics make effective use ofthe monochromatic directional coherence properties of laser radiation.