ASSAY APPARATUS COMPRISING AN IMPLANTED LIGHT SOURCE

摘要

Apparatus for assaying an analyte in a patient's blood comprising: at least one light source (22) implanted in the patient's body controllable to illuminate blood in a blood vessel (40) in the body with light at at least one wavelength that is absorbed and/or scattered by the analyte and as a result generates photoacoustic waves in the blood; at least one acoustic transducer (32) coupled to the body that receives acoustic energy from the photoacoustic waves and generates signals responsive thereto; and a processor (34) that receives the signals and processes them to determine a concentration of the analyte in the illuminated tissue region. Another embodiment of the apparatus comprises a light source and an optical detector mounted to a stent and optically coupled by a light pipe wherein light undergoes attenuated total reflection along the light pipe responsive to concentration of the analyte in the blood.