There is really a lot that human beings can do well, but honestly, our ability to grow on a consistent basis beats them all by quite some distance. This ability, in particular, has allowed us hit upon some huge milestones, with technology proving to be a major member of the stated group. The reason why technology enjoys such an esteemed stature among people is down to its core set of offerings that were unique enough to usher us towards a reality we couldn’t have imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, a closer would reveal how the whole runner was also inspired by the way we applied those skills across a real-world setting. The latter component was, in fact, what gave the creation a spectrum-wide presence, including a very well-timed appearance on our healthcare block. Technology’s linkup with healthcare was so perfect in regards to the timing because it came right when the sector was beginning to struggle against its own obsolete structure. Fortunately, this reality went through a complete overhaul under the new regime, but even after achieving such a monumental feat, the emerging medtech concept will somehow continue bringing all the right goods to the table. This has only turned more and more prevalent on the back of our recent progression, and a new development does everything to take it a step forward.
The researching team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has successfully developed a fluorescence imaging technique, which is designed to be of help in illuminating a tumor in situ and calculating its depth below the surface of the body. According to certain reports, the technique, as you can guess by the name, is largely built around using a specialized fluorescent dye. This dye is then excited by the induction of light at two wavelengths. Now, having different wavelengths mean that the light will also travel through the tissue to different depths, thus eventually letting out an excitation fluorescence which can be used to calculate the actual depth of a tumor in the tissue. Now, this is not the first fluorescence imaging system the world has ever seen, but almost all the previous systems have come to suffer from limited availability or just a plain lack of prowess to deliver quantitative data. The new setup takes on both those issue at once.
“The few commercial systems that do provide quantitative depth information are large and expensive, limiting use outside of large medical centers,” said Christine O’Brien, a researcher involved in the study. “Our group built upon prior work in this field to develop a low-cost, simple system that can quickly determine the depth of tumor cells using near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probes.”
Talk about what made the whole thing possible, the researchers used 730-nm and 780-nm LEDs to deliver light at different wavelengths. Other than that, they brought in a CMOS camera to detect the excitation fluorescence. It might sound overly simple, but mind you, the system has already displayed some promising results. Going by a test conducted on mice, it was able to carry out the whole imaging process in just five minutes, and as for the end product, the system’s prediction regarding tumor depth was also found to be accurate.
Till date, surgeons have opted to remove a margin of healthy tissue around the tumor to ensure that all of the cancerous tissue is included. While this has worked to a great extent, the approach has shown to adversely affect patient’s recovery. Hence, given the precise nature of the technique in question, we might be about to move on from this problem once and for all.
