MICROSCOPY & IMAGING
provide surgeons with the information needed to avoid accidental injury, which can lead to excessive bleeding and potentially patient death. Although still in the research phase,
Bell required a mobile unit to transport the imaging equipment from her lab to operating rooms in the hospital. “Although we do not make laser transportation trips between campuses, we specifically have the Phocus Mobile for the express purpose of transporting the laser and photoacoustic imaging setup from my lab in the hospital to any operating room in the hospital, where we commonly perform our in vivo experiments,” says Bell.
Te Phocus Mobile from Opotek is an ideal light source for photoacoustic imaging applications that require high pulse energies and NIR wavelengths for deep penetration of biological tissue. As early as 2008, the company began to transition from immovable, benchtop OPOs to a mobile form factor.
Over the past decade, Opotek has
introduced additional innovations to its mobile platform including fibre bundle delivery, complete automation of all system functions and fast tuning over the entire wavelength range. Te completely hands-free system tunable laser system provides a light-sealed, transportable cart designed for deployment into pre-clinical environments.
“Tis laser is built for mobility without sacrificing the high energies that we need to explore the limits of this novel application of photoacoustic imaging for surgical guidance,” adds Bell.
FIGHTING CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE One area where mobile photoacoustic imaging has the potential to have great impact is in diagnosing and treating coronary artery disease (CAD), a leading cause of death worldwide. CAD is often caused by atherosclerosis – a progressive inflammatory condition in
which deposits of plaque build-up in the arteries of the heart, often resulting in heart attack. Early detection of these plaques is difficult due to their motion, size and the obscuring electrical signals of the heart. Identifying problem lesions that are likely to rupture would improve medical outcomes. Dr Raiyan Zaman, an assistant
professor in the Department of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and an Assistant Investigator at the Gordon Center for Medical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, has been developing a novel method to image CAD plaques using tunable laser light since she was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
INTRAVASCULAR IMAGING Circumferential intravascular
radioluminescence photoacoustic imaging (CIRPI) combines radioluminescence imaging and photoacoustic tomography with a new optical probe to achieve up to 63 times more signal to noise. Photoacoustic imaging plays a key role in allowing the analysis of plaque composition and its morphology. “We are trying to minimise the multiple intravascular imaging procedures necessary for a patient who requires intervention for coronary artery disease. Tese imaging procedures are needed for the detection of stenosis and evaluation of coronary arterial wall before intervention. Our CIRPI system will combine all these necessary procedures into one imaging session,” says Zaman. Zaman and her team are currently in
The flexibility of compact, mobile, photoacoustic imaging equipment is helping to advance groundbreaking medical diagnostics
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the process of testing their system in an atherosclerotic animal model followed by clinical translation studies. “Te Opotek laser is a key component of our CIRPI system for photoacoustic imaging. Tis small but powerful tunable laser is perfect for our portable imaging system, enabling us to wheel it to a patient’s bedside,” says Zaman. With mobile photoacoustic medical imaging now readily available for preclinical and clinical use, researchers at labs as well as clinicians and patients in hospital settings can benefit from fast, extremely detailed imaging capability wherever needed. Te technological innovation will spur further advancements in medical research as well as help to improve diagnosis and patient care in clinical environments.
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