In silico spectral investigation of methemoglobin and sulfhemoglobin effects on human skin reflectance

Abstract

There are several pathologies whose study and diagnosis is impaired by a relatively small number of documented cases. A practical approach to overcome this obstacle and advance the research in this area consists in employing computer simulations to perform controlled in silico experiments. The results of these experiment, in turn, may be incorporated in the design of differential protocols for these pathologies. Accordingly, in this paper, we investigate the spectral responses of human skin affected by the presence of abnormal amounts of two dysfunctional hemoglobins, methemoglobin and sulfahemoglobin, which are associated with two life-threatening medical conditions, methemoglobinemia and sulfhemoglobinemia respectively. We analyse the results of our in silico experiments, and discuss their potential applications to the development of more effective noninvasive differentiation and monitoring procedures for these medical conditions.