Abstract: A non-invasive measurement of biological tissue reveals information about the function of that tissue. Polarized light is directed onto the tissue, stimulating the emission of fluorescence, due to one or more endogenous fluorophors in the tissue. Fluorescence anisotropy is then calculated. Such measurements of fluorescence anisotropy are then used to assess the functional status of the tissue, and to identify the existence and severity of disease states. Such assessment can be made by comparing a fluorescence anisotropy profile with a known profile of a control.

Abstract: A non-invasive measurement of biological tissue reveals information about the function of that tissue. Polarized light is directed onto the tissue, stimulating the emission of fluorescence, due to one or more endogenous fluorophors in the tissue. Fluorescence anisotropy is then calculated. Such measurements of fluorescence anisotropy are then used to assess the functional status of the tissue, and to identify the existence and severity of disease states. Such assessment can be made by comparing a fluorescence anisotropy profile with a known profile of a control.

Abstract: A non-invasive measurement of biological tissue reveals information about the function of that tissue. Polarized light is directed onto the tissue, stimulating the emission of fluorescence, due to one or more endogenous fluorophors in the tissue. Fluorescence anisotropy is then calculated. Such measurements of fluorescence anisotropy are then used to assess the functional status of the tissue, and to identify the existence and severity of disease states. Such assessment can be made by comparing a fluorescence anisotropy profile with a known profile of a control.

Abstract: A non-invasive measurement of biological tissue reveals information about the function of that tissue. Polarized light is directed onto the tissue, stimulating the emission of fluorescence, due to one or more endogenous fluorophors in the tissue. Fluorescence anisotropy is then calculated. Such measurements of fluorescence anisotropy are then used to assess the functional status of the tissue, and to identify the existence and severity of disease states. Such assessment can be made by comparing a fluorescence anisotropy profile with a known profile of a control.

Abstract: A non-invasive measurement of biological tissue reveals information about the function of that tissue. Polarized light is directed onto the tissue, stimulating the emission of fluorescence, due to one or more endogenous fluorophors in the tissue. Fluorescence anisotropy is then calculated. Such measurements of fluorescence anisotropy are then used to assess the functional status of the tissue, and to identify the existence and severity of disease states. Such assessment can be made by comparing a fluorescence anisotropy profile with a known profile of a control.

Abstract: A non-invasive measurement of biological tissue reveals information about the function of that tissue. Polarized light is directed onto the tissue, stimulating the emission of fluorescence, due to one or more endogenous fluorophors in the tissue. Fluorescence anisotropy is then calculated. Such measurements of fluorescence anisotropy are then used to assess the functional status of the tissue, and to identify the existence and severity of disease states. Such assessment can be made by comparing a fluorescence anisotropy profile with a known profile of a control.

Abstract: A non-invasive measurement of biological tissue reveals information about the function of that tissue. Polarized light is directed onto the tissue, stimulating the emission of fluorescence, due to one or more endogenous fluorophors in the tissue. Fluorescence anisotropy is then calculated. Such measurements of fluorescence anisotropy are then used to assess the functional status of the tissue, and to identify the existence and severity of disease states. Such assessment can be made by comparing a fluorescence anisotropy profile with a known profile of a control.

Abstract: A non-invasive measurement of biological tissue reveals information about the function of that tissue. Polarized light is directed onto the tissue, stimulating the emission of fluorescence, due to one or more endogenous fluorophors in the tissue. Fluorescence anisotropy is then calculated. Such measurements of fluorescence anisotropy are then used to assess the functional status of the tissue, and to identify the existence and severity of disease states. Such assessment can be made by comparing a fluorescence anisotropy profile with a known profile of a control.

Abstract: A non-invasive measurement of biological tissue reveals information about the function of that tissue. Polarized light is directed onto the tissue, stimulating the emission of fluorescence, due to one or more endogenous fluorophors in the tissue. Fluorescence anisotropy is then calculated. Such measurements of fluorescence anisotropy are then used to assess the functional status of the tissue, and to identify the existence and severity of disease states. Such assessment can be made by comparing a fluorescence anisotropy profile with a known profile of a control.

Abstract: A non-invasive measurement of biological tissue reveals information about the function of that tissue. Polarized light is directed onto the tissue, stimulating the emission of fluorescence, due to one or more endogenous fluorophors in the tissue. Fluorescence anisotropy is then calculated. Such measurements of fluorescence anisotropy are then used to assess the functional status of the tissue, and to identify the existence and severity of disease states. Such assessment can be made by comparing a fluorescence anisotropy profile with a known profile of a control.

Abstract: A non-invasive measurement of biological tissue reveals information about the function of that tissue. Polarized light is directed onto the tissue, stimulating the emission of fluorescence, due to one or more endogenous fluorophors in the tissue. Fluorescence anisotropy is then calculated. Such measurements of fluorescence anisotropy are then used to assess the functional status of the tissue, and to identify the existence and severity of disease states. Such assessment can be made by comparing a fluorescence anisotropy profile with a known profile of a control.

Abstract: The use of luminescent probe substances is detailed in methods and an apparatus for the determination of the concentration and distribution in space and time of numerous analytes of biologic and physical import in vivo and in vitro by the steady-state determination of luminescence lifetime. In the instance of analytes that quench excited states, a fluorophore whose excited state is quenched by the analyte in question is free to undergo Brownian rotation alone or when conjugated to a carrier molecule within a medium of suitable viscosity. The analysis medium is irradiated with continuous linearly polarized light at a wavelength strongly absorbed by the fluorophore. The emitted luminescence is resolved into its vector components parallel and perpendicular to the plane of polarization of the excitation light, thereby permitting the calculation of the luminescence anisotropy of the irradiated specimen.

Abstract: Methods are described for the in vivo topographic determination of tissue and bodily fluid oxygen concentration or PO.sub.2 within an imaged tissue, as well as a method for measuring blood or bodily fluid PO.sub.2 with a fiber optic catheter. In the first method, a lipid soluble, biocompatible fluorescent probe substance is administered to an animal body and accumulates within the lipid bilayers of its tissue cells. In the second method, the fluorescent probe substance is conjugated to a large molecular mass protein which causes it to be retained within a bodily fluid such as blood. In the third method describing a catheter design, in which PO.sub.2 is measured at the catheter tip, the tip contains the fluorescent probe substance dissolved in a viscous nonpolar solvent. In all methods described, a fluorescent probe substance is preferred whose fluorescence lifetime is quenched by molecular oxygen, and oxygen concentration or PO.sub.

Abstract: Methods are described for the in vivo topographic determination of tissue and bodily fluid oxygen concentration or PO.sub.2 within an imaged tissue, as well as a method for measuring blood or bodily fluid PO.sub.2 with a fiber optic catheter. In the first method, a lipid soluble, biocompatible fluorescent probe substance is administered to an animal body and accumulates within the lipid bilayers of its tissue cells. In the second method, the fluorescent probe substance is conjugated to a large molecular mass protein which causes it to be retained within a bodily fluid such as blood. In the third method describing a catheter design, in which PO.sub.2 is measured at the catheter tip, the tip contains the fluorescent probe substance dissolved in a viscous nonpolar solvent. In all methods described, a fluorescent probe substance is preferred whose fluorescence lifetime is quenched by molecular oxygen, and oxygen concentration or PO.sub.

Abstract: A method for in vivo measurement of oxygen concentration levels in animal bodily fluids or tissues comprises administering a biocompatible fluoroescent probe sensitive to oxygen quenching and having a known unquenched fluorescence intensity to an animal body in an amount sufficient to allow the probe to accumulate in the fluid or tissue, exposing the fluid or tissue to excitation light, measuring fluorescent emission light intensity from the probe in the fluid or tissue and determining the oxygen concentration level of the fluid or tissue by comparing the known unquenched fluorescence intensity and the measured fluorescence intensity. This method preferably uses a biocompatible fluorescent probe comprising pyrenebutyric acid or its biocompatible salt form.