Noninvasive characterization of the healthy human manubrium using diffuse optical spectroscopies.

The abnormal, uncontrolled production of blood cells in the bone marrow causes hematological malignancies which are common and tend to have a poor prognosis. These types of cancers may alter the hemodynamics of bone marrow. Therefore, noninvasive methods that measure the hemodynamics in the bone marrow have a potential impact on the earlier diagnosis, more accurate prognosis, and in treatment monitoring. In adults, the manubrium is one of the few sites of bone marrow that is rich in hematopoietic tissue and is also relatively superficial and accessible. To this end we have combined time resolved spectroscopy and diffuse correlation spectroscopy to evaluate the feasibility of the noninvasive measurement of the hemodynamics properties of the healthy manubrium in 32 subjects. The distribution of the optical properties (absorption and scattering) and physiological properties (hemoglobin concentration, oxygen saturation and blood flow index) of this tissue are presented as the first step toward investigating its pathology.