Transportable hyperspectral imaging setup based on fast, high-density spectral scanning for in situ quantitative biochemical mapping of fresh tissue biopsies

Year: 2024

Authors: Giannoni L., Marradi M., Scibilia K., Ezhov I., Bonaudo C., Artemiou A., Toaha A., Lange F., Caredda C., Montcel B., Puppa A.D., Tachtsidis I., Ruckert D., Pavone F.S.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Florence, Dept Phys & Astron, Florence, Italy; European Lab Nonlinear Spect, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Tech Univ Munich, TranslaTUM Ctr Translat Canc Res, Munich, Germany; Univ Florence, Azienda Osped Univ Careggi, Dept Neurosci Psychol Pharmacol & Child Hlth, Neurosurg, Florence, Italy; UCL, Dept Med Phys & Biomed Engn, London, England; Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Univ Lyon, INSA Lyon, UJM St Etienne,CNRS,INSERM,CREATIS UMR 5220, Lyon, France; Imperial Coll London, Dept Comp, London, England; CNR, Natl Inst Opt, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.

Abstract: Significance: Histopathological examination of surgical biopsies, such as in glioma and glioblastoma resection, is hindered in current clinical practice by the long time required for the laboratory analysis and pathological screening, typically taking several days or even weeks to be completed. Aim: We propose here a transportable, high-density, spectral scanning-based hyperspectral imaging (HSI) setup, named HyperProbe1, that can provide in situ, fast biochemical analysis, and mapping of fresh surgical tissue samples, right after excision, and without the need for fixing, staining nor compromising the integrity of the tissue properties. Approach: HyperProbe1 is based on spectral scanning via supercontinuum laser illumination filtered with acousto-optic tunable filters. Such methodology allows the user to select any number and type of wavelength bands in the visible and near-infrared range between 510 and 900 nm (up to a maximum of 79) and to reconstruct 3D hypercubes composed of high-resolution (4 to 5 mu m), widefield images (0.9×0.9 mm(2)) of the surgical samples, where each pixel is associated with a complete spectrum. Results: The HyperProbe1 setup is here presented and characterized. The system is applied to 11 fresh surgical biopsies of glioma from routine patients, including different grades of tumor classification. Quantitative analysis of the composition of the tissue is performed via fast spectral unmixing to reconstruct the mapping of major biomarkers, such as oxy-(HbO(2)) and deoxyhemoglobin (HHb), as well as cytochrome-c-oxidase (CCO). We also provided a preliminary attempt to infer tumor classification based on differences in composition in the samples, suggesting the possibility of using lipid content and differential CCO concentrations to distinguish between lower and higher-grade gliomas. Conclusions: A proof of concept of the performances of HyperProbe1 for quantitative, biochemical mapping of surgical biopsies is demonstrated, paving the way for improving current post-surgical, histopathological practice via non-destructive, in situ streamlined screening of fresh tissue samples in a matter of minutes after excision.

Journal/Review: JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL OPTICS

Volume: 29 (9)      Pages from: 93508-1  to: 93508-20

More Information: The HyperProbe consortium and project have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under grant agreement No 101071040 – Project HyperProbe. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. AA, FL, and IL from UCL are supported by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) (Grant No. 10048387).
KeyWords: hyperspectral imaging; biomedical optics; biophotonics; digital histopathology; neurosurgery
DOI: 10.1117/1.JBO.29.9.093508