Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy for intraoperative assistance of thyroid surgery

Searching for new methods to provide information of biochemical composition and structure is critical to improve the prognosis of thyroid diseases. The use of time-resolved fluorescence techniques to detect biochemical composition and tissue structure alterations could help develop a portable, minimally invasive, and non-destructive method to assist during surgical procedures. This research looks for employ a fluorescence technique based on lifetime measurements to differentiate healthy and benign lesions from malignant thyroid tissue. We employ a wide range of excitation and chose a more appropriate region for this work: 298-300 nm; and the fluorescence decay was measured at 340-450 nm. We observed fluorescence lifetimes at 340 nm emission of 0.80 +/- 0.26 and 3.94 +/- 0.47 ns for healthy tissue; 0.90 +/- 0.24 and 4.05 +/- 0.46 ns for benign lesions; and 1.21 +/- 0.14 and 4.63 +/- 0.25 ns for malignant lesions. For 450 nm emissions, we obtain lifetimes of 0.25 +/- 0.18 and 3.99 +/- 0.39 ns for healthy tissue, 0.24 +/- 0.17 and 4.20 +/- 0.48 ns for benign lesions, 0.33 +/- 0.32 and 4.55 +/- 0.55 ns for malignant lesions. We successfully demonstrated that fluorescence lifetimes at 340 nm emission can differentiate between thyroid malignant and healthy/benign tissues.