3D Printed Modular Vein Viewing System Based on Differential Light Absorption in the Near Infrared Range

Abstract

. There are many cases in the medical laboratory examinations when it is necessary to detect a vein in a patient and the blood vessels are not visible to the naked eye. In such situations, devices for optical vein visualization are required. Nowadays, the technology of optical vein visualization is promising, but it has a number of disadvantages. Moreover, no objective approach has been proposed to estimate visualization quality, which complicates the choice of technical parameters of a vein viewer. For this reason, a prototype of vein viewer with interchangeable and easily replaceable parts was presented in this paper. This prototype allowed to perform experiments changing the optical properties of the vein viewer. A new methodology of visualization quality estimation was developed. This new methodology allows to quantitatively estimate the visualization quality. Proposed technique is also almost independent of the human factor. The research involved 20 volunteers aged 20–24 with Fitzpatrick skin phototype III. Studies were carried out to evaluate the change in the output signal of the prototype under the use of different optical elements for the same object Thus, the influence of absorption long-pass optical filters HWB780 and HWB830 on the contrast of veins in relation to the skin surface when using two different LED illumination sources (850 nm and 940 nm peak wavelengths) was analyzed. The effectiveness of lenses with focal lengths of 3.6 mm, 16 mm, and 25 mm was observed. © 2023 Journal of