Paper
12 February 2009 Determination of sensation threshold from small pulse trains of 2.01μm laser light
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
The determination of sensation thresholds has applications ranging from uses in the medical community such as neural pathway mapping and for the diagnosis of diabetic neuropathy, to potential uses in determining safety standards. This study sought to determine the sensation threshold, and the distribution of sensation probabilities, for pulse trains ranging from two 10 ms pulses to nine 10 ms pulses from 2.01 μm laser light incident on a human forearm and chest. Threshold was defined as the energy density that would elicit sensation 50% of the time (ED50). A method of levels approach was used in conjunction with a monovariate binary response model to determine the ED50. We determined the ED50 and also a distribution of threshold probabilities. Threshold was found to be largely dependant on total energy deposited for smaller pulse trains, and thus independent of the number of pulses. Total energy becomes less important as the number of pulses increases however, and a decrease in threshold was measured for a nine pulse train as compared to one through four pulse trains. Thus we have demonstrated that this method is a useful and easy way for determining sensation thresholds from a 2.01 μm laser for possible clinical use. We have also demonstrated that lower power lasers when pulsed can elicit sensation at comparable levels to higher power single pulse lasers.
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Daniel C. Dugan and Thomas E. Johnson "Determination of sensation threshold from small pulse trains of 2.01μm laser light", Proc. SPIE 7175, Optical Interactions with Tissue and Cells XX, 71750P (12 February 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.809344
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KEYWORDS
Pulsed laser operation

Laser damage threshold

Chest

Skin

Safety

Laser applications

Laser tissue interaction

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