Researchers for the first time created a sensing element, known as a fiber Bragg grating, inside bioresorbable optical fibers. According to Science Daily, the technology can be used to monitor the condition of fractures and safe research of sensitive organs, for example, the brain. Bragg gratings reflecting the light of a particular wave are often used in optical fibers used as sensors. For example, such fibers are used to monitor bridges in real time or to track the integrity of the aircraft's wings. However, in medicine they have not yet been used. The new technology will overcome this limitation through the use of optical fibers that are destroyed in the body. Initially, researchers from Greece and Italy created biodegradable glass for Bragg gratings. To do this, they used phosphorus oxide in combination with calcium, magnesium, sodium and silicon oxides. The resulting glass combines excellent optical properties with water solubility and compatibility with living organisms, and its properties can be changed by adjusting the chemical composition. The biodegradable glass grids were then placed in conditions simulating the human body. As the experiment has shown, in such an environment the structures created dissolve without a trace, which opens the way for their medical application. Such sensors will be safe for the body and do not need to be removed after use.

Among possible examples of the use of fiber with Bragg gratings - the creation of sensors for assessing the pressure in the joints and monitoring the heart and other sensitive organs. Also such an optical fiber can improve laser methods of tumor removal while simultaneously conducting a beam and measuring the temperature. necessary for the laser ablation process. However, before proceeding to develop medical applications of technology, its safety and efficacy will be tested in laboratory animals.

Original article: Fiber-optic sensors are developed that dissolve inside the body.