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Measuring the hormone concentration in biological liquids is of high informational importance. Changes in the hormone concentration in blood, urine, saliva and other bodily fluids accompany the majority of main human diseases, and occur long before clinical symptoms appear. Improvements in the hormone diagnostic methods target an increase in their precision and effectiveness, and a reduction in cost and time of disease diagnostics.
A laser method for an express diagnostics of steroid hormones has been developed. It is expected to enhance substantially the effectiveness and accuracy of tests' definition, as well as the precision of the detection of hormone concentration. At the same time, the method results in a substantial reduction of testing costs and time.
The essence of the method lies in the fact that the liquid under investigation is excited within the frequency band of steroid hormone absorption, characterized by an absorption of about 240nm, with the use of the third harmonic of a tunable alexandrite crystal laser. The output reading is carried out using photo-electronic sensors, and registers the most intensive peaks in the spectrum of particular hormones in the range of 300nm. The laser operates in the mode of active modulation of a high frequency resonator coupled with an electro-optical shutter. The pulse duration is 20ns, with an impulse frequency of 10Hz. Conversion of the irradiation frequency into the second and third harmonics is carried out through the use of specially developed crystals, with the capacity of the irradiation impulse in the third harmonic frequency being 0.5mW.
Today no similar methods of laser diagnostics exist in clinical practice.
This technology is expected to result in a substantial increase in the effectiveness and accuracy of the diagnostics, coupled with a reduction in the time required for the tests, as well as an anticipated test cost reduction of up to 90%, as compared to existing diagnostic methods.
The technology has been fully developed for application to steroid hormone diagnostics, and is ready for clinical testing to validate its application. The development of its application to non-steroid hormone diagnostics is being completed.
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