Resection of brain tumor is a challenging task as the tumor does not have clear borders and the malignant types specifically have often a diffuse and infiltrative pattern of growth. We have previously implemented and evaluated a fluorescence spectroscopy based handheld probe for detecting the 5-aminolevulinic acid induced protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) in the gliomas. To add another dimension to the brain tumor detection and volumetric analysis of the tissue that exhibits fluorescence, optical coherence tomography was investigated on tumor specimens.

Material and Methods:

A fluorescence microscopy and a spectroscopy system as reported previously were used for detecting the fluorescence signals [1, 2]. A total of 50 patients have been included for intraoperative assessment of the tumor borders using the fluorescence techniques. A spectral domain OCT imaging system (TELESTO II, Thorlabs, Inc., NJ, USA) with central wavelength of 1325 nm was used to study the tissue microstructure post operatively. The system has a resolution of 13 and 5.5 μm in the lateral and axial directions, respectively. Tissue specimens from three patients undergoing brain tumor surgery were studied using the OCT system.

Results and Conclusion:

Using fluorescence spectroscopy the tumor could be detected with a sensitivity of 0.84 which was significantly higher than that of the surgical microscope (0.30). Brain tissue appeared rather homogeneous in the OCT images however the highly malignant tissue showed a clear structural difference from the non-malignant or low malignant brain tumor tissue which could be related to the fluorescence signal intensities.