Skip to main content

LED Hyperspectral Imaging Device Promises Faster Gastrointestinal Cancer Diagnoses





Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer screening by endoscopy has improved localized cancer prognosis and diagnosis rate. Still, conventional GI endoscopy misses about 8-11% of tumors, due to lack of visibility during upper GI endoscopic exams.

One possible way to increase the sensitivity of endoscopic examinations is by using hyperspectral imaging techniques. Hyperspectral imaging captures images across discrete, narrowband wavelength channels, including wavelengths beyond the visible. By analyzing how cells reflect and absorb light across the electromagnetic spectrum, the technique enable users to acquire a unique spectral fingerprint of each cell in a tissue sample.

To improve endoscopic imaging and detect cancers at an earlier stage, a team led by professor Baowei Fei at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) developed an LED-based, real-time hyperspectral imaging device for endoscopes. The researchers designed a prototype based on a monochrome, micro-digital camera and a multiwavelength LED array comprising 18 LEDs in 18 different wavelengths ranging from 405-910 nm. The team aimed to achieve an image capturing rate of over 10 hypercubes per second (hps) without compromising spatial resolution.

The researchers used micro-LEDs with footprints smaller than 400 μm × 400 μm to miniaturize the device. This enabled the team to build an imaging device that could accommodate tens of LEDs at the tip of a clinical endoscopic catheter, and create a hyperspectral imaging system with an in situ light source.

By using an in situ hyperspectral light source, the researchers avoided the need for fiber optics, increasing the mobility of the endoscope catheter and lessening the complexity of the mechanical design.

The LED-based approach to wavelength scanning makes the device low-power, and allows illumination intensities to be adjusted dynamically based on the distance between the device and the target.

To evaluate the feasibility of using an LED-based illumination source for endoscopic imaging, the researchers studied their system’s performance on different normal and cancerous ex vivo tissues. They found that the hyperspectral signatures of different imaging targets acquired using the prototype hyperspectral imaging device were found to be comparable to the data obtained with the reference system.

The use of LEDs for hyperspectral imaging could enable numerous applications in endoscopic, laparoscopic, and handheld HSI devices for detecting disease, according to the researchers.

Ultimately, Fei aims to develop hyperspectral technology that can be used to track many different types of cancers, and that is small enough to be placed in handheld, affordable personal devices, such as a smartphone or pen that could be used to scan the skin or mouth, for example.

“Basically, you could complete the scan, and the information would be wirelessly transferred to the cloud," Fei said. "Then, AI may determine the lesion is suspicious and refer the person to a medical center for follow-up.

"Our goal is to produce imaging systems that are really affordable as well as cost-effective, meaning they could find cancers at earlier stages and reduce the need for unnecessary tissue removal and testing.”

Bio Photonics Research Award

Visit: biophotonicsresearch.com
Nominate Now: https://biophotonicsresearch.com/award-nomination/?ecategory=Awards&rcategory=Awardee

#MeatAnalysis #FluorescenceTech #FoodQuality #FoodSafety #SpectroscopyInFood #MeatAuthentication #RapidDetection #FoodScience #MeatFreshness #MolecularDetection #FoodIndustryInnovation #NonDestructiveTesting #FoodMonitoring #SpectroscopyApplications #QualityControl #AdvancedSpectroscopy #MeatSpoilageDetection #FoodIntegrity #SmartFoodTesting #RealTimeAnalysis #FoodAuthenticity #FoodSafetyInnovation #SpectroscopyResearch #NextGenFoodSafety #InnovativeFoodScience,

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Abrisa Technologies Acquires Agama Glass Technologies

SANTA PAULA, Calif. — Abrisa Technologies, a provider of custom glass optics and thin film coatings and a subsidiary of HEF Photonics, has acquired Agama Glass Technologies, a manufacturer of etched anti-glare glass and technical glass processing. The acquisition, Abrisa said, expands its manufacturing footprint and adds a vertically integrated solution for chemically etched anti-glare display glass. According to Abrisa, Clarksburg, West Virginia-based Agama operates North America’s only high-volume technical glass etching facility. Agama's flagship product, AgamaEtch, is used in high-performance display and optics applications. The company's 85,000 sq ft facility also offers precision glass fabrication, chemical strengthening, and silk-screen printing, serving markets such as avionics, defense, medical, industrial, and touchscreen displays. Combined with Abrisa Technologies’ and HEF Photonics’ thin-film coating and surface engineering capabilities, Agama's offerings wi...

How Biophotonics Is Harnessing Light for Health And Science

Fifty or so years ago French physicist Pierre Aigrain coined the term photonics as a research field whose goal was to use light to perform functions that traditionally fell within the typical domain of electronics, such as telecommunications, and information processing. Or maybe it was John Campbell who, in a letter sent to Gotthard Gunther in 1954, wrote, “Incidentally, I’ve decided to invent a new science — photonics. It bears the same relationship to Optics that electronics does to electrical engineering. Photonics, like electronics, will deal with the individual units; optics and EE deal with the group phenomena! And note that you can do things with electronics that are impossible in electrical engineering!” Naming rights aside, the field of photonics began in earnest between 1958 and 1960 with the invention of the maser and the laser. The laser diode followed during the 1970s, optical fibers and the erbium-doped fiber amplifier after that, and, pretty soon, the telecommunications...

Accurate Magnetic Field Measurement Method Could Advance Quantum Sensing

  Optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) are used to measure magnetic fields in biosensing, contraband testing, and magnetic communications. They also aid in dark matter searches and serve as promising platforms for quantum -enhanced measurements. Accurate vector magnetometry, however, remains a challenge for OPMs due to the OPM’s inherent scalar operation. Scalar OPMs require an external reference to extract directional information. While scalar measurements are often sufficient, robust calibration of vector OPMs is increasingly important for applications requiring high accuracy as well as precision. Researchers at JILA, a joint research institute of the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, demonstrated a vector OPM that uses Rabi oscillations driven between the manifolds of rubidium atoms to measure the direction of a magnetic field against the polarization ellipse structure of a microwave field. The researchers exposed a cell con...