Hyperspectral Imaging in the Medical Field: Present and Future

Abstract

Hyperspectral imaging is an optical method that provides a large amount of information about the investigated object. Its medical applications are reviewed in this article, including tumor delimitation and identification, assessing tissue perfusion and its pathological conditions (including some complications like diabetic foot ulceration), making accurate surgical decisions, evaluating the health of dental structures, etc. Many of the articles show very promising results that required brief comments by the authors. It is clear that choosing the appropriate hyperspectral imaging system for each medical field, together with the most reliable hyperspectral image processing methods, are the main goals of future studies, before hyperspectral imaging becomes a widely applicable evaluation method in medicine. The authors try to answer some questions on this topic and set up some directions for future research.

Can spectral–spatial image segmentation be used to discriminate experimental burn wounds?

“…[15][16][17] The technology is still under development; however, a number of publications report encouraging results. 18,19 As HSI comprises both spectroscopic measurements and imaging, it enables combination of spectroscopic and statistical image analysis methods. [20][21][22] For situations requiring immediate answers, the analysis can be performed in real time.…”

Algorithm for mapping cutaneous tissue oxygen concentration using hyperspectral imaging

“…More than that this study provided a validation method for this algorithm taking into account a number as large as possible of situations. Therefore the algorithm is accompanied by a validation method based on a test image (hypercube) that allows testing a very large number (10,201) of different combinations of minimization parameters.…”

“…Each of these methods has however its own limitations, in terms of accuracy, invasiveness, time-consuming, expensiveness, etc. More recently, hyperspectral imaging technique (HSI) has proven its value to assess tissue oxygenation [9][10][11] providing in a non-invasive way maps of distribution of both hemoglobin species. This information can be only obtained by applying some specific methods for the processing and analyzing of the large volumes of data contained in a hyperspectral image.…”

Imaging spectroscopy: Origin and future trends

“…Just one example of imaging spectroscopy in medical science is mentioned in Table 5. Many such reports on the applications of hyperspectral imaging in medical science are reviewed recently (68,69). Several conventional physical phenomena have been implemented ingeniously to the field of imaging spectroscopy.…”