ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:In recent years, monitoring the pressure in the human body, especial y esophageal variceal pressure, becomes a hot spot. A lot of progress has been achieved regarding fiber optical sensors for measurement of the pressure in the human body. OBJECTIVE:To briefly review the fiber optical sensor applications in the human body. METHODS:A computer-based online retrieval was performed to search papers in CNKI periodical ful-text database and PubMed database (from January 1983 to March 2013) using the key words of“fiber optical sensor, pressure, measurement”in Chinese and English, respectively. After excluding objective-independent and repetitive papers, 40 papers were included for further analysis. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Compared with traditional sensors, fiber optical sensors, which have advantages in high sensitivity, large dynamic range, fast response, tolerance to electronic interference, explosion proofing, fireproofing and corrosion protection, have been used to measure esophageal variceal pressure, intracranial pressure, pharyngeal pressure, pediatric airway pressure, cardiovascular&blood pressure, intervertebral disc pressure, intrauterin pressure in childbirth, pressure in the colon, plantar pressure and shear force as wel as other pressures in the human body. Fiber optical sensors have been used more widely in pressure monitoring. With the development of production technology and device performance, fiber optical sensors wil further promote the rapid development of medical science in the near future.