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The review begins with an overview of the fundamental principles/physics underlying light, fluorescence, and other light-matter interactions in biological tissues. It then focuses on 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)-induced protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) fluorescence spectroscopy methods used in neurosurgery (e.g., intensity, time-resolved) and in so doing, describe their specific features (e.g., hardware requirements, main processing methods) as well as their strengths and limitations. Finally, we review current clinical applications and future directions of 5-ALA-induced protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) fluorescence spectroscopy in neurosurgery.

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X-Ray imaging techniques are among the most widely used modalities in medical imaging and their constant evolution has led to the emergence of new technologies. The new generation of computed tomography (CT) systems - spectral photonic counting CT (SPCCT) and X-ray luminescence optical imaging - are examples of such powerful techniques. With these new technologies the rising demand for new contrast agents has led to extensive research in the field of nanoparticles and the possibility to merge the modalities appears to be highly attractive. In this work, we propose the design of lanthanide-based nanocrystals as a multimodal contrast agent with the two aforementioned technologies, allowing SPCCT and optical imaging at the same time. We present a systematic study on the effect of the Tb3+ doping level and surface modification on the generation of contrast with SPCCT and the luminescence properties of GdF3:Tb3+ nanocrystals (NCs), comparing different surface grafting with organic ligands and coatings with silica to make these NCs bio-compatible. A comparison of the luminescence properties of these NCs with UV revealed that the best results were obtained for the Gd0.9Tb0.1F3 composition. This property was confirmed under X-ray excitation in microCT and with SPCCT. Moreover, we could demonstrate that the intensity of the luminescence and the excited state lifetime are strongly affected by the surface modification. Furthermore, whatever the chemical nature of the ligand, the contrast with SPCCT did not change. Finally, the successful proof of concept of multimodal imaging was performed in vivo with nude mice in the SPCCT taking advantage of the so-called color K-edge imaging method.

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Spectroscopy is a popular technique for identifying and quantifying fluorophores in fluorescent materials. However, quantifying the fluorophore of interest can be challenging when the material also contains other fluorophores (baseline), particularly if the emission spectrum of the baseline is not well-defined and overlaps with that of the fluorophore of interest. In this work, we propose a method that is free from any prior assumptions about the baseline by utilizing fluorescence signals at multiple excitation wavelengths. Despite the nonlinearity of the model, a closed-form expression of the least squares estimator is also derived. To evaluate our method, we consider the practical case of estimating the contributions of two forms of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) in a fluorescence signal. This fluorophore of interest is commonly utilized in neuro-oncology operating rooms to distinguish the boundary between healthy and tumor tissue in a type of brain tumor known as glioma. Using a digital phantom calibrated with clinical and experimental data, we demonstrate that our method is more robust than current state-of-the-art methods for classifying pathological status, particularly when applied to images of simulated clinical gliomas. To account for the high variability in the baseline, we are examining various scenarios and their corresponding outcomes. In particular, it maintains the ability to distinguish between healthy and tumor tissue with an accuracy of up to 87%, while the ability of existing methods drops near 0%.

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When adapted to the Dideco Vivacell cell separator, the eccentriplate system allows preparation of leukocyte-poor platelet concentrates. Results of its use on 84 procedures showed that a mean of 4.51 x 10(11) platelets were removed in less than 2 hours with a particularly low level of leukocyte contamination: 2.6 x 10(8). Study of platelet function showed them to be altered more by eccentriplate than by conventional removal with the same apparatus. Analysis of recirculation in vivo corroborated the functional anomalies observed with all aggregating agents (with the exception of arachidonate). These anomalies were associated with a quantity of platelets collected at the lower limit of French norms: 30% of the concentrates contained less than 4 x 10(11) platelets. These findings indicate the need for improvement in the eccentriplate system.

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