Imaging of non-tumorous and tumorous human brain tissues with full-field optical coherence tomography

Abstract

A prospective study was performed on neurosurgical samples from 18 patients to evaluate the use of full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT) in brain tumor diagnosis.FF-OCT captures en face slices of tissue samples at 1 μm resolution in 3D to a penetration depth of around 200 μm. A 1 cm2 specimen is scanned at a single depth and processed in about 5 min. This rapid imaging process is non-invasive and requires neither contrast agent injection nor tissue preparation, which makes it particularly well suited to medical imaging applications.Temporal chronic epileptic parenchyma and brain tumors such as meningiomas, low-grade and high-grade gliomas, and choroid plexus papilloma were imaged. A subpopulation of neurons, myelin fibers and CNS vasculature were clearly identified. Cortex could be discriminated from white matter, but individual glial cells such as astrocytes (normal or reactive) or oligodendrocytes were not observable.This study reports for the first time on the feasibility of using FF-OCT in a real-time manner as a label-free non-invasive imaging technique in an intraoperative neurosurgical clinical setting to assess tumorous glial and epileptic margins.

Multiphoton Tomography and Cross-Polarization Optical Coherence Tomography for Diagnosing Brain Gliomas: Pilot Study

“…The work with animals was guided by the "Regulations on Work with experimental Animals" and the "International Recommendations for Medical-Biological Studies with Animals" [33], in addition to the ethical principles stated by the european convention for the protection of vertebrate animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes (accepted in Strasburg on 18 Glial tumors from patients. Biopsy specimens of tumor tissue were obtained from 6 patients as a result of microsurgery and glial tumor excision.…”

“…confocal microscopy [15], multiphoton tomography (MPT) [16] and optical coherence tomography (OcT) [17,18] are of interest not only in respect of intraoperative identification of neoplasm boundaries, but also as methods for optical cytobiopsy.…”

Review of intraoperative optical coherence tomography: technology and applications [Invited]

“…The advent of Fourier-domain detection for OCT [25][26][27][28] and confirmation of its sensitivity advantage over time-domain technologies [29][30][31] facilitated the progression from real-time B-scan imaging [32,33] to real-time volumetric imaging [34]- [36] while preserving OCT's diagnostic potential [37][38][39][40][41]. Consequently, the Fourier-domain OCT revolution of the early 2000's led to increased commercialization [42], widespread clinical adoption of OCT in ophthalmology [43][44][45], and increasing prominence of OCT in other specialties such as cardiology [46], gastroenterology [47], and cancer imaging [48][49][50][51].…”

Optical coherence tomography for precision brain imaging, neurosurgical guidance and minimally invasive theranostics

“…Assayag et al applied a FF-OCT imaging system to structural imaging of brain tumor specimens (70). However, the diagnostics of brain tumors are only implemented in brain specimens ex vivo.…”