Fiber-Optic-Based System for High-Resolution Monitoring of Stretch in Excised Tissues

Assessment of the Influence of Protective Polymer Coating on Panda Fiber Performance Based on the Results of Multivariant Numerical Simulation

This article considers the deformation behavior of Panda optical fiber using different models of material behavior for the tasks of predicting residual stresses after drawing when cooling from 2000 °C to room temperature (23 °C) and indenting the fiber into an aluminum half-space at different parameters. These studies were conducted for single- and double-layer protective coatings (PCs), at different values of external load and thickness of single-layer PC. This paper determined the fields of residual stresses in the fiber formed during the drawing process. They are taken into account in modeling the fiber performance in the further process of this research. This article investigated two variants of PC behavior. The influence of behavior models and the number of covering layers on the deformation of the "fiber-half-space" system was analyzed. This paper establishes qualitative and quantitative regularities of the influence of the external load magnitude and relaxation properties of PCs on the deformation and optical characteristics of Panda optical fiber.

A Flexible PDMS-Based Optical Biosensor for Stretch Monitoring in Cardiac Tissue Samples

Cardiotoxicity, characterized by adverse impacts on normal heart function due to drug exposure, is a significant concern due to the potentially serious side effects associated with various pharmaceuticals. It is essential to detect the cardiotoxicity of a drug as early as possible in the testing phase of a medical composite. Therefore, there is a pressing need for more reliable in vitro models that accurately mimic the in vivo conditions of cardiac biopsies. In a functional beating heart, cardiac muscle cells are under the effect of static and cyclic stretches. It has been demonstrated that cultured cardiac biopsies can benefit from external mechanical loads that resemble the in vivo condition, increasing the probability of cardiotoxicity detection in the early testing stages. In this work, a biosensor is designed and fabricated to allow for stretch monitoring in biopsies and tissue cultures using an innovative sensing mechanism. The detection setup is based on a biocompatible, thin, flexible membrane-where the samples are attached-which is used as an optical waveguide to detect pressure-caused shape changes and stretches. Various prototypes have been fabricated with a cost-effective process, and different measurements have been carried out to experimentally validate the proposed measurement technique. From these evaluations, stretches of up to 1.5% have been measured, but the performed simulations point towards the possibility of expanding the considered technique up to 10-30% stretches.