Vanderbilt University

The Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Steven A Toms

Anita Mahadevan-Jansen

Wei-Chiang Lin

Ravi S Chari

E Duco Jansen

A method for differentiating malignant in vivo liver tissues from normal in vivo liver tissues of a living subject includes the steps of: (a) illuminating a first area and a second area of in vivo liver tissues of the living subject with a first excitation light, (b) measuring an intensity of fluorescent light emitted from each of the first area and the second area of in vivo liver tissues in response to the first excitation light as a function of wavelength so as to obtain a first and a second fluorescent spectra, respectively, (c) illuminating the first area and the second area of in vivo liver tissues with a second excitation light, (d) measuring an intensity of diffuse light reflected by each of the first area and the second area of in vivo liver tissues in response to the second excitation light as a function of wavelength so as to obtain a first and a second diffused reflectance spectra, respectively, and (e) identifying one of the first area and the second area of in vivo liver tissues as malignant liver tissues and the other one of the first area and the second area of in vivo liver tissues as normal liver tissues, by comparing the first fluorescence spectrum and the second florescence spectrum, and comparing the first diffused reflection spectrum and the second diffused reflection spectrum.

System and method for differentiation of normal and malignant in vivo liver tissues

Optical spectroscopy for brain tumor demarcation was investigated in this study. Fluorescence and diffuse reflectance spectra were measured from normal and tumorous human brain tissues in vitro. A fluorescence peak was consistently observed around 460 nm (&plusmn;10 nm) emission from both normal and tumorous brain tissues using 337 nm excitation. Intensity of this fluorescence peak (F ) from normal brain tissues was greater than that from primary brain tumorous tissues. In addition, diffuse reflectance (Rd) between 650 nm and 800 nm from white matter was significantly stronger than that from primary and secondary brain tumors. A good separation between gray matter and brain tumors was found using the ratio of F and Rd at 400 nm-600 nm. Two empirical discrimination algorithms based on F (400 nm-600 nm), Rd (600 nm-800 nm), and F (400 nm-600 nm)/Rd (400 nm-600 nm) were developed. These algorithms yielded an average sensitivity and specificity of 96% and 93%, respectively.

Growing community of inventors

Shaker Heights, OH, United States of America

Steven A Toms