Paper: ASAT-13-TE-21

13th International Conference on

AEROSPACE SCIENCES & AVIATION TECHNOLOGY,
ASAT- 13, May 26 28, 2009, E-Mail: asat@mtc.edu.eg
Military Technical College, Kobry Elkobbah, Cairo, Egypt
Tel : +(202) 24025292 24036138, Fax: +(202) 22621908

Determination of Glucose Concentration Using

Optical Coherence Tomography
H. El Ghandoor*, Yasser. H. Elsharkawy**, A. F. El-Sherif **, and R. M. Elghwas**
Abstract: In order to enhance cell culture growth in biosensors such as those for glucose
detection must be developed that are capable of monitoring cell culture processes
continuously and accurate. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is used to obtain cell images
with nanometer level resolution by analyzing the interference pattern by the mixing of
reference and objective light to determine glucose concentration in doped double distilled
water and a bovine serum-based medium. OCT systems are capable to obtain a direct
measurement of scattering amplitude along a vertical axis. Fourier transform domain for
optical coherence tomography (OCT) achieves greater sensitivity and higher imaging speed
and has become a powerful tool for biomedical and material application.
Keywords: Optical sensor, optical coherence tomography, glucose level detection, imaging.

1. Introduction
One of the major diseases in the world is diabetes. In diabetic patients the synthesis and
metabolism of glucose is abnormal that leads to abnormal blood glucose levels in the body
tissue. Diabetes mellitus is a medical condition in which the body does not adequately
produce the quantity or quality of insulin needed to maintain normal circulating blood
glucose. It is estimated that diabetes afflict nearly 8 million person in Egypt, 16 million
person in the united states and over 100 million person on the whole world (2007). Diabetes is
the fourth leading cause of death by disease in the United States, killing more than 169,000
people every year. For that, a strong motivation forced a lot of research groups toward
thinking of an easy and accurate way of monitoring the causes, symptoms, effects, start and
development of such disease [1-5], so here we tried to assist in that fight of the disease by
introducing a method which facilitates and provides a technique to precisely know the
concentration level of glucose solutions in blood, helping the medical practitioners to reach
the suitable decision for each pathological case in the proper time. We rely in this technique
on the Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) as an imaging technique [6],
using laser source .
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an emerging technology that can generate high
resolution images of tissues in real time. OCT is analogous to ultrasound imaging, except that
it uses the echo delay of light instead of sound to generate images [7]. OCT has critical
advantages over other medical imaging systems, where medical ultrasonography, magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI)and confocal microscopy are not suited to morphological tissue
imaging; the former two having poor resolution; the latter lacking millimeter penetration

Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University-Cairo Egypt.

Egyptian Armed Forces.
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**

Paper: ASAT-13-TE-21
depth. By employing broadband optical light sources, axial resolutions of 1 to 2 m can be
achieved by OCT, which is more than order of magnitude above that obtainable for high
frequency ultrasound. The critical parameter which we want to catch is the resolution, or in
another meaning, to raise the ability of our facilities to detect, monitors and differentiate
between small amounts of glucose solutions concentration levels.

2. Theory of Measurement
Light rays refract when it crosses from medium to another having different optical density,
according to Snell's law of refraction.

n1 sin1 = n2 sin2

Fig. 1 Representation of Snell's law

where n1 refers to the refraction index of the first medium and n2 refers to the refraction index
of the second medium and 1 is the incidence angle of the light ray and 2 is the exiting angle
of the light ray with the perpendicular axis on the interface between the two mediums. We
investigated that concept in this work, where for a monochromatic light (He-Ne laser, 632.8
nm wavelength) going through a new medium, (glucose solution with specific concentration)
in its way, will force it to change its route cause of the difference in the refractive index from
the space to the test sample. Now there are two parts of the beam, the first continued in its
way without going through the sample medium, so the sample has no effect on its direction,
and the other which go through the sample forcing it to change its direction after exiting from
the sample medium to meet the other part and form an interference pattern to be detected at
the imaging plane. The deflection angle of the deviated part is depending on the refractive
index of the sample medium which depends also on the concentration level of glucose in
solution. There is no simple expression for () that can be inverted to give the refractive index
as a function of position. However, under the assumption of small numerical aperture, the
deflection function can be related to the optical path length difference.
The following figure (2) presents a graphical representation for the routes of different parts of
the ray that we mentioned earlier, where we exhibit the part that has been deviated from the
different parts of the sample test section with different angles according to the optical path of
each of them (such as ray 3 & ray 4) and rays which haven't been affected by the sample test
section (such as ray 1 & ray 2).

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Fig. 2. Ray tracing of rays passing through the test section

We will try to set a relationship between the bending angle () and the refraction index (n)
using Bouguers formula by Inverting the bending angle data with Abel transform. Since the
impact parameter (a) is constant in the straight line, it is possible to compute the bending
angle (which is the departure of the true ray from the ideal assumption of the true line).
Therefore: As illustrated in Fig. 2.
The straight line (laser source)
True ray (laser source after sample interaction)

r sin (s) = as
n r sin () = a

Differentiating both expressions, multiplying the straight line one by the refraction index and
subtracting both equations it is obtained the following:
dn rsin + n dr (sin sin s) + n r (cos d cos s d s) = 0

(1)

Since the bending angle is very small in degrees it is possible to approximate the previous
expression to:
dn r sin + n r cos (d d s) = 0

(2)

The deferential of the bending angle (d) is, in fact, the quantity (d d s), therefore
recalling the Bouguers formula, the previous expression yields to:
d = (-

sin dn
)
cos n

(3)

The main hypothesis is that the test section may be regarded as a phase object, so that the
actual ray trajectory can be approximated by a straight line between the launching and
observation planes. This assumption does not introduce any significant error provided one
uses a very small index difference between the glucose solution and the single material
refractive index of the capillary.
In the Cartesian coordinate system, if the optical path differences are known for all
between zero and , the normalized index profile can be reconstructed by the discrete
integral, this is the form of Abels transform whose inverse is [11]:

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n ( r )

n(r ) n f
nf

dy
y r
2

(4)
2

where:
n (r) = Refraction Index Difference
i = r and f = are the limits of the phase object and is the index of refraction at f, which is in
our case.
= 3.14
: deflection angle
r2 = (y2+z2)1/2 position along capillary tube cross sections.
f(x,y)

gl (x cos l + y sin l )

(5)

l 1

where the angles l with l= 1, 2N are those for which the optical path difference are known.
Values g ( ) are calculated by inverse Fourier transforms.
g( ) =

S(k)k exp (i2 k )dk

(6)

where k is the spatial frequency and S(k) is the Fourier transform of refraction index
difference function n (r), which is given by

S(k) =

n (r) exp (-i2 k )d

(7)

S(k) and g( ) can be obtained efficiently by applying a fast Fourier transform and an
inverse fast Fourier transform, respectively.
To obtain the index profile of the test section, the first step is to use the laser scanning method
to measure the deflection function , of the test section for N orientations. For each
orientation, the whole perform is scanned transversely with an increment . Then the
refraction differences n (r) are calculated and the FFT is applied to the optical path length
difference function to obtain S(k). the back-projecting filtered function g( ) is obtained by
using the inverse FFT for each point (x,y), the normalized index profile of the test section is
obtained by numerical integration over the rotation angle . To minimize the influence of
measurement noise, which is generally of higher frequencies, S(k) is multiplied with a
Hamming window function H(k) before taking the inverse FFT. Superior reconstructions are
usually obtained by applying such a window to filter the projection.

3. Experiment
The configuration shown schematically in figure 1 represents the current state of our OCT
system. The reference light from laser source (He-Ne laser) center frequency 633.8 nm is
injected into objective microscope lens to have a fan beam magnified output ray, directed to a
20 cm focal length lens to have as a result parallel beam as it is illustrated in the shown figure,
a tunable open hole piece used to deliver the heart of the laser beam to meet the sample which
is present at the way of the laser beam, where part of the beam is subjected to the sample and
the other part pass normally in its way not affected by the sample cause there is no
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intersection, both beams interact with each other after the sample position to have an
interference pattern, this interference pattern in this work one time detected by the
spectrometer (HR 4000 CG, Ocean Optics Spectrasuite) as shown in configuration (Fig.3.a.)
and the other time is detected by the CCD (coupled charged device) camera (Pulnix TMC1325cl) with its zooming part as shown in the other configuration (Fig.3.b.), where this is the
detection stage, both devices are interfaced to the computer for storage of detected images,
and the raw data from the detector are used for the index reconstruction.

Fig. 3.a. The system setup configuration using spectra-suite spectrometer

Fig.3.b. The system setup configuration using CCD camera and PC

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The samples for this experiment are divided into two groups:
Group A: standard samples of glucose solutions are brought from the market which are used
for patients in hospitals made by pharmaceutical companies with high precision, we have 3
different concentrations in that group (5%, 10%, and 25%) where these ratios refer to that
each liter contains the following 50 gm, 100 gm, and 250 gm glucose respectively and it can
be called also 5 mg/dl, 10 mg/dl, and 25 mg/dl.
Group B: laboratory-made samples of glucose solutions which are made by the dilution
factor equation applied to the standard sample 25% to get new samples lies in-between the
concentration levels of the standard ones, we obtained another four different glucose
concentrations in the laboratory, which are (2.5%, 7.5%, 12.5%, 15%) in addition to the
distilled water which represents the (0%) glucose concentration solution.

For Group A of the test sample we put it one after one in the Spectrometer setup
configuration, performing the absorbance experiment, where the absorbance spectra are a
measure of how much light a sample absorbs, absorbance relates linearly to the concentration
of the substance. Spectrasuite spectrometer calculates absorbance ( A ) using the following
equation.

A = - log10 (
where:

S D
)
R D

(8)

S = Intensity of Sample Scanning at wavelength (He-Ne laser (632.8 nm))

D =Dark intensity (room noise) at wavelength
R =Reference intensity (laser beam) at wavelength

We obtained result for each sample, in addition to the distilled water, where the experiment
depends on the application of Beer's law of attenuation as shown previously. Then we put the
same samples in the second configuration setup (configuration with CCD camera) where the
interference pattern is imaged and transferred to the computer to be processed by the
algorithm previously mentioned in the Theory section to have a specific feature for each
sample as it will be shown in the Results section.
For Group B of the test samples, we used CCD Camera configuration setup and procedure
sequence which proved its higher ability than the Spectrometer one in group A for resolving
the difference between the different Glucose solutions concentration levels and we get the
exhibited results in the following section (Results).

4. Results and Data Reduction

In this section we display the outputs of the accomplished experiments previously mentioned
for both groups respectively.

Group A:
The first experiment accomplished is the absorbance with the use of the spectrometer for the
three standard samples; we obtained the following result shown in the following figure.

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Fig. 4. Absorbance experiment for group A

As we see above that the figure exhibits the difference between the three Glucose solution
concentration levels in absorbance through the band of wavelengths around the used laser
source (He-Ne Laser 632.8 nm) where the blue curve (series 1) represents the 5% glucose
solution, the burble curve (series 2) represents the 10%, and the yellow one represents the
25% glucose solution. But we deuced from that figure that they are nearly adjacent in some
positions although the difference between the first and the second is the twice of its
concentration and the ratio between the second and the third is (1: 2.5). It will be shown in the
following figures how it has been distinguished between the same samples through the
algorithm of this paper.

Fig. 5. Deflection angle

The previous figure shows the concept of light refraction from passing through a different
medium where it is clear that as the Glucose concentration increases the deflection angle of
the laser beam changes also to a different value. It will be shown in the next figure the image
profile of one of the samples which directed our work to take the standard deviation of the
columns of the image matrix to see what results we get below.

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Fig. 6. 3-D Reconstructed Image Profiles of(5%& 25% Glucose)

The variance of each sample took our mind to the following exhibited results in the next curve
for the three samples.

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Fig. 7. Intensity Distribution

We noticed here that there is a shift in the curve and shrinkage in the bandwidth with the
increase of the concentration level of glucose solution. Where the relation shows the
transmitted amplitude intensity versus the position in our image but the curves are still
adjacent to each other, and we want more resolution in differentiation between those samples,
we get it by the following relationship between the refractive index against the concentration
level of the samples , where there is a relation between the refractive index and the variance
of the image, which is deduced from the shape of the last figure leads to use the variance of
the image of each sample we get the following.

Fig. 8. Glucose Concentration versus Refractive Index Relation for Group A

The blue curve connects the measured value points to represent the relation between the
Refractive index and the glucose Concentration while the burble curve represents the relation
after linear fitting where it is clear that they are close and nearly adjacent and to each other.
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Group B:
As it is known that the differences in concentration between the elements of Group B is less
than the differences between the elements of Group A, also it is clear from results of Group A
that the resolution is more better with the used method in the next configuration of CCD
camera detection way. So we used the second setup and we get the following results in the
next curves.

Fig. 9. Deflection angle of Group B

And as previous analysis we get from the reconstructed image profiles shown below we took
the same steps and we get the following results.

Fig. 10. Intensity Distribution

Then finally we get the relationship between the refractive index and the different glucose
concentration levels of Group B as seen below, the blue curve represents the actual values and
the burble one is for the linear fitted curve to see the direction of the change in the values of
refraction index relative to the increase in Glucose concentration.

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Fig. 11. Glucose Concentration versus Refractive Index Relation for Group B

As it is clear from the above shown figure for group B that by using linear fitting process, we
reached to have a linear relationship between the refractive index and the glucose
concentration levels, and the difference that we see between the blue curve and the burble
curve is due to that the range of concentration that we deal with is very fine, which is very
hard to distinguish with traditional methods of biochemical analysis.

5. Conclusion
The method we used here in this paper achieved an enhancement in the resolution power of
detection of different glucose solution concentration levels which provides specialists with a
way to reach highly accurate analysis results for biological samples (blood, urine) which is
very essential in most cases for physicians to have a correct diagnosis about some
pathological states and by that we hope to help in achieving forward steps in defeating
different diseases especially Diabetes Mellitus.

References and Links

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glucose monitoring in relation to glycemic control, observational study with diabetes
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Kirill V., Larin, Mohsen S., Eledrisi, Massoud M. and Rinat O. Esenaliev,
(2002):Noninvasive Blood Glucose Monitoring with Optical Coherence Tomography
Laboratory for Optical Sensing and Monitoring, University of texas medical Branch,
glveston, American Diabetes Association, Texas, 25: 2263-2267.
Klingensmith G.J. (Ed.)(2003):Intensive diabetes Management Alexandria, VA,
Americam Diabetes Association.
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