Instrumentation considerations in spectral imaging for tissue demarcation: comparing three methods of spectral resolution

摘要

Multiple methodologies exist to implement spectral imaging for tissue demarcation and disease diagnosis. In thisrnpaper, benchtop acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF), liquid-crystal tunable filter (LCTF) and Fourier interferometricrnspectral imaging systems were quantitatively compared in terms of imaging speed of soft tissue autofluorescence.rnOptical throughput, image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and collagen autofluorescence imaging in chicken breast werernassessed. Within this comparison, the Fourier system possessed the largest optical throughput (~50%) relative to therntunable-filter imaging systems; however, its throughput advantage failed to correlate to improved image SNR over thernLCTF system. Further, while the autofluorescence imaging capability of the Fourier system exceeded that of the LCTFrnsystem for comparable total image integration times, the LCTF is capable of producing equivalent autofluorescence SNRrnwith superior SNR when interrogations at only a few wavelengths are required and the random access filter tuning of thernLCTF can be exploited. Therefore, the simple, rugged design and random-access filter-tuning capability of LCTF-basedrnspectral imaging makes it best-suited for clinical development of soft tissue autofluorescence imaging.