
Lightweight handheld microscope
Imperial College London
Two new optical devices could reduce the need to take tissue samples during medical examinations and operations and to then send them for testing – potentially speeding up diagnosis and treatment and cutting healthcare costs.
One is a lightweight handheld microscope designed to examine external tissue or tissue exposed during surgery. One example of its use could be to help surgeons compare normal and cancerous cells (during an operation). A key advantage is that the device can acquire high quality 3D images of parts of the body while patients are moving (eg due to normal breathing), enabling it to be applied to almost any exposed area of a patient’s body.
The second instrument, a tiny endoscope* incorporating specially designed optical fibres and ultraprecise control of the light coupled into it, has the potential to be inserted into the body to carry out internal cell-scale examination, for example during neurosurgery. Ultimately, this new approach may be able to provide high resolution images enabling surgeons to see inside individual cells at an adjustable depth beneath the surface of the tissue.
Both prototypes have been developed by Imperial College London in collaboration with the University of Bath and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Currently, the diagnosis of many diseases requires taking a tissue specimen from the patient, preparing it in a laboratory, studying it under a microscope and then forwarding the results back to the clinician. The new devices, both of which harness a technique known as multiphoton excited fluorescence microscopy** to analyse individual cells in their native tissue, could be used in a consulting room or an operating theatre to help clinicians identify diseased tissue and provide a rapid diagnosis.
The handheld microscope incorporates a tracking mechanism that compensates for the patient’s movements, ensuring the generation of steady images. The endoscope is just a fraction of a millimetre in diameter and has no moving parts. Both these devices use novel multicore optical fibres developed by Imperial’s collaborators by the University of Bath.
Dr Chris Dunsby of Imperial College London, who has led the overall project, says:
These new devices open up exciting possibilities in the field of in-situ diagnosis and could help improve patient care in the future.
Professor Jonathan Knight, who led the University of Bath team, says: This has been a very exciting project which has enabled us to develop fibres with performance which we would have previously thought impossible.
After further development and refinement of the technology, clinical trials will explore the healthcare benefits of the two devices in more detail, with the goal of beginning to introduce them into clinical use within around 5-10 years.
Learn more: New multiphoton microscopes could speed up disease diagnosis
The Latest on: Disease diagnosis
via Google News
The Latest on: Disease diagnosis
- Advocates say bill could mean life or death for victims of Huntington's diseaseon January 20, 2021 at 11:07 pm
While all eyes are on the inauguration this week, the Huntington's Disease Society of America is leaning on a new Congress for a bill that they say is the difference between life and death for those ...
- FDA Grants Priority Review to Genentech’s Esbriet (pirfenidone) for Unclassifiable Interstitial Lung Diseaseon January 20, 2021 at 10:11 pm
Genentech, a member of the Roche Group (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY), announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the company’s supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA ...
- Blood Biomarker May Predict Alzheimer's Disease Progressionon January 20, 2021 at 12:14 pm
Changes in plasma levels of p-tau181 are associated with progressive cognitive decline and reduction in gray matter volume in patients with amyloid beta.
- Mental Illness in Youth Tied to High Risk of Physical Disease, Deathon January 20, 2021 at 12:06 pm
Mental illness in young individuals is associated with a strikingly high risk of subsequent physical illness, disability, and premature mortality, results of a large longitudinal study show.
- New Parkinson's disease therapeutics discoveredon January 20, 2021 at 4:38 am
Gurion University of the Negev researchers have discovered that the protein BMP5/7 offers promising therapeutics that could slow down or halt the progression of Parkinson's disease. The findings were ...
- Fatty liver disease symptoms: The colour of your eyes could indicate you have the diseaseon January 20, 2021 at 2:09 am
FATTY liver disease is more likely to affect people who have diabetes, high cholesterol and/or high blood pressure. If you're at risk of the condition, how would you know if you had it? What are the ...
- Fatty liver disease symptoms: Two physical warning signs of the dangerous conditionon January 20, 2021 at 12:00 am
FATTY liver disease is one of the most common hidden conditions. What are the physical symptoms to look out for indicating your risk and that your diet needs to change immediately?
- BMP5/7 protein offers promising therapeutics that could halt the progression of Parkinson's diseaseon January 19, 2021 at 10:39 pm
Gurion University of the Negev researchers have discovered that the protein BMP5/7 offers promising therapeutics that could slow down or halt the progression of Parkinson's disease.
- Damage caused by motor neurone disease could be REVERSED using existing drugs that improve energy levels in nerve cells, study revealson January 19, 2021 at 9:06 am
Researchers from Edinburgh University have pinpointed an issue in patients' nerve cells that depletes energy levels in the mitochondria - the power supply to the motor neurones.
- General health checkups may detect early signs of Parkinson's diseaseon January 19, 2021 at 7:31 am
A research team led by Nagoya University in Japan has found that blood pressure, the hematocrit, and serum cholesterol levels change in patients with Parkinson's disease long before the onset of motor ...
via Bing News