MID-INFRARED AND RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY FOR MEDICAL DIAGNOSTICS

Abstract

The spectroscopy of molecular vibrations using mid-infrared or Raman techniques has been applied to samples of human tissue or body fluids. This review gives examples for its potential in supporting medical diagnostics. Most of the investigations have been performed in the field of internal medicine, namely angiology, hematology, rheumatology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, and nephrology. Further potential applications in neurology, gynecology, obstetrics and dermatology are considered. Although some fundamental issues of the vibrational spectroscopy of biomedical samples still have to be solved, significant progress has been achieved in its clinical application in-vitro. First steps towards in-vivo applications are described.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Of course, it is not possible to give appropriate credit to all the people who contributed to the application of vibrational spectroscopy in medical diagnostics. For instance, the significant progress concerning the identification and classification of bacteria (e.g. by the groups of Naumann or Manfait) as well as the activities in the fields of infectious diseases, foreign inclusions, gallstones, calcified tissues such as bone or teeth, or the drug detection in hair have been coarsely neglected. For these topics, the reader is referred, for example, to the recent book by H.-U. Gremlich and B. Yan [9] and the references therein. Regarding the preparation of this manuscript, however, I would like to especially acknowledge the valuable discussions with my medical colleague O. Quarder. Furthermore I am indebted to A. Nagel, R. Mischler, A. Staib, G. Werner and H.-M. Hein for their support.