Project FluoroCam

  Prototype of a handheld camera for quantitative intraoperative fluorescence imaging

Funding
   Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant 03V0270)
   01/2016 – 12/2018

Partner
   Department of Gynecology, Virchow Clinic, Charité University Medicine Berlin

We have developed a hand-held fluorescence imaging camera which can be employed for real-time sentinel lymph node mapping during surgery after application of the contrast agent indocyanine green (ICG). The device uses two near-infrared wavelengths to record fluorescence and anatomical images with a single charge-coupled device camera. Experiments on lymph node and tissue phantoms confirmed that the amount of dye in superficial lymph nodes can be better estimated due to the absorption correction procedure integrated in the device. Because of the camera head’s small size and low weight, all accessible regions of tissue can be reached without the need for any adjustments. The fluorescence camera was successfully tested in a clinical study at the Department of Gynecology of the Charité Berlin, Campus Virchow Clinic, on sentinel lymph node detection at four gynecological cancer types (vulva carcinoma, cervical carcinoma, ovarian carcinoma and endometrial carcinoma).

Publications

L. Szyc, S. Bonifer, A. Walter, U. Jagemann, D. Grosenick, and R. Macdonald, “Development of a handheld fluorescence imaging camera for intraoperative sentinel lymph node mapping,” J. Biomed. Opt. 20(5), 051025 (2015) [doi:10.1117/1.JBO.20.5.051025].