Special Issue of the «Diagnostics» journal

The Special Issue “Optical Diagnostics in Human Diseases” of Diagnostics (Q1, IF 3.11) was published. The guest editor of this issue was Dr Andrey Dunaev, a leading researcher at the Research and Development Center of Biomedical Photonics and the Сell Physiology and Pathology Laboratory.

This issue highlights the advantages and unique aspects of applying optical diagnostic methods for identifying and evaluating various diseases and pathological conditions. The issue includes 4 articles by the R&D Center staff based on the results of 3 RFBR projects and 1 RSF project. Two studies were carried out jointly with the doctors of Orel Regional Clinical Hospital – endocrinologist Galina Masalygina and surgeon, a senior researcher, Dr Andrian Mamoshin.

The article “Machine Learning Aided Photonic Diagnostic System for Minimally Invasive Optically Guided Surgery in the Hepatoduodenal Area” is devoted to the technical implementation development and the assessment of machine learning methods efficiency for the real-time diagnosis of tumours in hepatoduodenal organs by fluorescence spectroscopy. This approach is aimed at improving the effectiveness of minimally invasive surgical operations by providing additional diagnostic information in real time. The development of experimental setup and data acquisition were carried out within the project No. 18-15-00201 “Clinical and experimental substantiation of multiparametric optical biopsy of hepatopancreatoduodenal zone organs for minimally invasive surgical operations”, supported by the Russian Science Foundation, in cooperation with the Surgical Department of Orel Regional Clinical Hospital.

The article “Optical Diagnostics of the Maxillary Sinuses by Digital Diaphanoscopy Technology” is devoted to the development of a basis for instrument implementation of a digital diaphanoscopy technology for the diagnosis of maxillary sinus inflammatory diseases taking into account the anatomical, age and gender features of patients. The approach proposed may be promising as a screening method for assessing the condition of maxillary sinuses both in hospitals and medical institutions and remotely in the absence of otolaryngologists and diagnosticians. This study was funded by RFBR within the project No. 20-32-90147 “Clinical and experimental substantiation of digital diaphanoscopy technology for diagnostics of maxillary sinus pathologies”. The work was carried out in cooperation with the German company art photonics GmbH.

The article “Laser Doppler Spectrum Analysis Based on Calculation of Cumulative Sums Detects Changes in Skin Capillary Blood Flow in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus” is devoted to the development of a new method of signal processing and data analysis in digital laser Doppler flowmetry. The main result of the study is the development of a set of classifiers that allow the method to identify typical patterns of microcirculation in healthy volunteers and diabetic patients based on the presented diagnostic algorithm. This study was funded by RFBR within the project No. 19-32-90253 “Decomposition of Doppler broadening spectra of laser radiation for evaluation of mircovascular oscillations” in cooperation with the Endocrinology Department of Orel Regional Clinical Hospital.

The article “Body position affects capillary blood flow regulation measured with wearable blood flow sensors” is devoted to the study of changes in microcirculation parameters in different body positions using a distributed system of wearable laser Doppler flowmeters. The importance of a body position influence during the monitoring of microcirculatory parameters is demonstrated. The results obtained may be of particular interest for the possibility of integrating the laser Doppler flowmetry channel into wearable devices for monitoring cardiovascular system state. The study was carried out within the RFBR project No. 20-08-01153 “Development of fundamental basis for the creation and application of wearable multichannel laser Doppler sensors of blood microcirculation in the diagnostics of cardiovascular system disorders” in cooperation with the National Medical Research Center for Therapy and Preventive Medicine of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

We congratulate the authors on their publications and wish them further success in their research!