Video-rate fluorescence diffuse optical tomography for in vivo sentinel lymph node imaging

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biophotonics
• Optical Tomography

Background:

• Sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping is crucial for cancer staging.
• Current SLN mapping methods can be invasive or lack sufficient resolution.
• Noninvasive imaging techniques are needed for improved SLN detection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a fiber-based, video-rate fluorescence diffuse optical tomography (DOT) system.
• To assess the system's capability for noninvasive in vivo SLN mapping.
• To evaluate the system's sensitivity and depth localization for fluorescent targets.

Main Methods:

• Developed a fiber-based, video-rate fluorescence diffuse optical tomography (DOT) system.
• Acquired concurrent fluorescence and reference signals for ratio-metric data.
• Performed 3D image reconstruction of fluorescent targets.
• In vivo imaging of indocyanine green (ICG) dye accumulation in rat SLNs.

Main Results:

• Established accurate depth localization (>10 mm) and high sensitivity to fluorescent targets.
• Successfully imaged in vivo accumulation of indocyanine green (ICG) dye in sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs).
• Demonstrated the capability of video-rate fluorescence DOT for SLN mapping.

Conclusions:

• The developed video-rate fluorescence DOT system enables noninvasive in vivo SLN mapping.
• The system demonstrates high sensitivity and accurate depth localization for fluorescent targets.
• Video-rate fluorescence DOT shows significant potential as a clinical tool for SLN mapping.