Ex-Vivo Measurement of the pH in Aqueous Humor Samples by a Tapered Fiber-Optic Sensor

A practical demonstration of pH measurement in real biological samples with an in-house developed fiber-optic pH sensor system is presented. The sensor uses 8-hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonate (HPTS) fluorescent dye as the opto-chemical transducer. The dye is immobilized in a hybrid sol-gel matrix at the tip of a tapered optical fiber. We used 405 nm and 450 nm laser diodes for the dye excitation and a photomultiplier tube as a detector. The sensor was used for the measurement of pH in human aqueous humor samples during cataract surgery. Two groups of patients were tested, one underwent conventional phacoemulsification removal of the lens while the other was subjected to femtosecond laser assisted cataract surgery (FLACS). The precision of the measurement was +/- 0.04 pH units. The average pH of the aqueous humor of patients subjected to FLACS and those subjected to phacoemulsification were 7.24 +/- 0.17 and 7.31 +/- 0.20 respectively.