Rajesh Kanawade

Qualitative tissue differentiation by analysing the intensity ratios of atomic emission lines using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS): prospects for a feedback mechanism for surgical laser systems

The research work presented in this paper focuses on qualitative tissue differentiation by monitoring the intensity ratios of atomic emissions using ‘Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy’ (LIBS) on the plasma plume created during laser tissue ablation. The background of this study is to establish a real time feedback control mechanism for clinical laser surgery systems during the laser ablation process. Ex-vivo domestic pig tissue samples (muscle, fat, nerve and skin) were used in this experiment. Atomic emission intensity ratios were analyzed to find a characteristic spectral line for each tissue. The results showed characteristic elemental emission intensity ratios for the respective tissues. The spectral lines and intensity ratios of these specific elements varied among the different tissue types. The main goal of this study is to qualitatively and precisely identify different tissue types for tissue specific laser surgery. (© 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy for bone and cartilage differentiation - ex vivo study as a prospect for a laser surgery feedback mechanism

Laser surgery enables for very accurate, fast and clean modeling of tissue. The specific and controlled cutting and ablation of tissue, however, remains a central challenge in the field of clinical laser applications. The lack of information on what kind of tissue is being ablated at the bottom of the cut may lead to iatrogenic damage of structures that were meant to be preserved. One such example is the shaping or removal of diseased cartilaginous and bone tissue in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). Diseases of the TMJ can induce deformation and perforation of the cartilaginous discus articularis, as well as alterations to the cartilaginous surface of the condyle or even the bone itself. This may result in restrictions of movement and pain. The aim of a surgical intervention ranges from specific ablation and shaping of diseased cartilage, bone or synovial tissues to extensive removal of TMJ structures. One approach to differentiate between these tissues is to use Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). The ultimate goal is a LIBS guided feedback control system for surgical laser systems that enables real-time tissue identification for tissue specific ablation. In the presented study, the authors focused on the LIBS based differentiation between cartilage tissue and cortical bone tissue using an ex-vivo pig model.

Preparation of a skin equivalent phantom with interior micron-scale vessel structures for optical imaging experiments

A popular alternative of preparing multilayer or microfluidic chip based phantoms could have helped to simulate the subsurface vascular network, but brought inevitable problems. In this work, we describe the preparation method of a single layer skin equivalent tissue phantom containing interior vessel channels, which mimick the superficial microvascular structure. The fabrication method does not disturb the optical properties of the turbiding matrix material. The diameter of the channels reaches a value of 50 μm. The size, as well as the geometry of the generated vessel structures are investigated by using the SD-OCT system. Our preliminary results confirm that fabrication of such a phantom is achievable and reproducible. Prospectively, this phantom is used to calibrate the optical angiographic imaging approaches.

Investigation of the differentiation of ex vivo nerve and fat tissues using laser‐induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS): Prospects for tissue‐specific laser surgery

In the present study, the elemental compositions of fat and nerve tissue during their plasma mediated laser ablation are studied in the context of tissue differentiation for laser surgery applications by using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). Tissue samples of porcine fat and nerve were prepared as ex vivo experimental objects. Plasma mediated laser ablation is performed using an Nd : YAG laser in open air and under normal stray light conditions. The performed measurements suggest that the two tissue types show a high similarity in terms of qualitative elemental composition while at the same time revealing a distinct difference in the concentration of the constituent elements. Different analysis approaches are evaluated and discussed to optimize the tissue-differentiation performance of the LIBS approach. Plasma mediated laser tissue ablation.

In-vivo multispectral video endoscopy towards in-vivo hyperspectral video endoscopy

For in-vivo diagnostics of cancer and pre-cancer in the stomach, there is no endoscopic procedure offering both high sensitivity and high specificity. Our data suggest that multispectral or hyperspectral imaging may be helpful to solve this problem. It is successfully applied to the detection and analysis of easily reachable carcinomas, ex-vivo samples of hollow organ mucosal carcinomas and also histological samples. An endoscopy system which allows flexible multispectral videoendoscopy for in-vivo diagnostics has so far been unavailable. To overcome this problem, we modified a standard Olympus endoscopy system to conduct in-vivo multispectral imaging of the upper GI tract. The pilot study is performed on 14 patients with adeno carcinomas in the stomach. For analysis, Support Vector Machine with linear and Gaussian Kernel, AdaBoost, RobustBoost and Random-Forest-walk are used and compared for the data classification with a leave-one-out strategy. The margin of the carcinoma for the training of the classifier is drawn by expert-labeling. The cancer findings are cross-checked by biopsies. We expect that the present study will help to improve the further development of hyperspectral endoscopy and to overcome some of the problems to be faced in this process.

Investigation of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) for the Differentiation of Nerve and Gland Tissue—A Possible Application for a Laser Surgery Feedback Control Mechanism

Laser surgery provides clean, fast and accurate modeling of tissue. However, the inability to determine what kind of tissue is being ablated at the bottom of the cut may lead to the iatrogenic damage of structures that were meant to be preserved. In this context, nerve preservation is one of the key challenges in any surgical procedure. One example is the treatment of parotid gland pathologies, where the facial nerve (N. VII) and its main branches run through and fan out inside the glands parenchyma. A feedback system that automatically stops the ablation to prevent nerve-tissue damage could greatly increase the applicability and safety of surgical laser systems. In the present study, Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is used to differentiate between nerve and gland tissue of an ex-vivo pig animal model. The LIBS results obtained in this preliminary experiment suggest that the measured spectra, containing atomic and molecular emissions, can be used to differentiate between the two tissue types. The measurements and differentiation were performed in open air and under normal stray light conditions.

Improved cancer diagnostics by different image processing techniques on OCT images

Optical-coherence tomography (OCT) is a promising non-invasive, high-resolution imaging modality which can be used for cancer diagnosis and its therapeutic assessment. However, speckle noise makes detection of cancer boundaries and image segmentation problematic and unreliable. Therefore, to improve the image analysis for a precise cancer border detection, the performance of different image processing algorithms such as mean, median, hybrid median filter and rotational kernel transformation (RKT) for this task is investigated. This is done on OCT images acquired from an ex-vivo human cancerous mucosa and in vitro by using cultivated tumour applied on organotypical hippocampal slice cultures. The preliminary results confirm that the border between the healthy and the cancer lesions can be identified precisely. The obtained results are verified with fluorescence microscopy. This research can improve cancer diagnosis and the detection of borders between healthy and cancerous tissue. Thus, it could also reduce the number of biopsies required during screening endoscopy by providing better guidance to the physician.

Monitoring of Epithelial Capillary Density

Monitoring the epithelium vessel capillary density pattern is critically important for preventing rapidly developing life threatening syndromes such as shock or systemic organ failures. The objective of this study is real time monitoring of epithelium vessel density pattern. The fiber sensor will be based on spatially resolved diffuse reflectance spectra. The parameters comprising period and depth of capillary spatial modulation are exploited for shock detection. The preliminary investigations with simulated spectra have shown that the new method can reasonably extracts minor deviations of oxygenation and local volume blood fraction - parameters, directly related to the local vessel density. The original method developed to use these parameters is much less dependent on light scattering in visible range as opposed to the most of the currently used methods.

Extension of depth-resolved reconstruction of attenuation coefficients in optical coherence tomography for slim samples

Coherent light propagating through turbid media is attenuated due to scattering and absorption. The decrease of the intensity of the coherent light is described by the attenuation coefficient. The measured decay of the coherent light through turbid media with optical coherence tomography (OCT) can be used to reconstruct the attenuation coefficient. Since most of the OCT systems work in the near-infrared region, they are the optical window from 800-1400 nm in tissue. Hence, the most part of the attenuation coefficient is caused due to the scattering. Therefore, deriving the attenuation coefficient is one way to get an approximation of the scattering coefficient which is difficult to access even up to day. Moreover, OCT measurements are one of the few possibilities to derive physical properties with micrometre resolution of the media under investigation.

Photoplethysmography (PPG) Sensor for Real-time Body Hemodynamics Monitoring - An Efficient, Robust and Simple Approach for Clinical Shock Diagnostics

The goal of this study is to explore the feasibility of the PPG sensor for the clinical shock detection by measuring hemodynamic parameters.