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Hyperspectral stimulated Raman scattering (hsSRS) microscopy has recently emerged as a powerful non-destructive technique for the label-free chemical imaging of biological samples. In most hsSRS imaging experiments, the SRS spectral range is limited by the total bandwidth of the excitation laser to ~300 cm −1 and a spectral resolution of ~25 cm −1 . Here we present a novel approach for broadband hsSRS microscopy based on parabolic fiber amplification to provide linearly chirped broadened Stokes pulses. This novel hsSRS instrument provides >600 cm −1 spectral coverage and ~10 cm −1 spectral resolution. We further demonstrated broadband hsSRS imaging of the entire Raman fingerprint region for resolving the distribution of major biomolecules in fixed cells. Moreover, we applied broadband hsSRS in imaging amyloid plaques in human brain tissue with Alzheimer's disease.

Intraoperative consultations, used to guide tumor resection, can present histopathological findings that are challenging to interpret due to artefacts from tissue cryosectioning and conventional staining. Stimulated Raman histology (SRH), a label-free imaging technique for unprocessed biospecimens, has demonstrated promise in a limited subset of tumors. Here, we target unexplored skull base tumors using a fast simultaneous two-channel stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) imaging technique and a new pseudo-hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) recoloring methodology. To quantitatively evaluate the efficacy of our approach, we use modularized assessment of diagnostic accuracy beyond cancer/non-cancer determination and neuropathologist confidence for SRH images contrasted to H&E-stained frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue sections. Our results reveal that SRH is effective for establishing a diagnosis using fresh tissue in most cases with 87% accuracy relative to H&E-stained FFPE sections. Further analysis of discrepant case interpretation suggests that pseudo-H&E recoloring underutilizes the rich chemical information offered by SRS imaging, and an improved diagnosis can be achieved if full SRS information is used. In summary, our findings show that pseudo-H&E recolored SRS images in combination with lipid and protein chemical information can maximize the use of SRS during intraoperative pathologic consultation with implications for tissue preservation and augmented diagnostic utility.

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