An irradiation system for Photodynamic Therapy with a fiber-optic sensor for measuring tissue oxygen

Photodynamic Therapy is a well known treatment based on the interaction of light of specific wavelength with a photosensitizing drug. In the presence of oxygen molecules, the illumination of the photosensitizer can activate the production of reactive oxygen species, which leads to the death of target cells within the treated tissue. In order to obtain the best therapy response, the tissue oxygen concentration should be measured to adjust the therapy parameters before and during the treatment. In this work, an irradiation system for 5-Aminolevulinic Acid Photodynamic Therapy is presented. It allows the application of visible light radiation of 630 nm using as a light source a high-brightness light emitting diode with an optical-power automatic control considering a light depth-distribution model. A module to measure the tissue oxygen saturation has been implemented into the system. It is based on two light emitting diodes of 660 nm and 940 nm as light sources, a photodiode as a detector and a new handheld fiber optic reflectance pulse oximetry sensor for estimating the blood oxygen saturation within the tissue. The pulse oximetry sensor was modeled through multilayered Monte Carlo simulations to study the behavior of the sensor with changes in skin thickness and melanin content.