How The Autofluorescence System Works- Description

reduced autofluorescence

increased autofluorescence

Steven Palter, MD, creator of DITM just posted breaking news on his prize winning “x-ray vision” autofluorescent endoscopy system. Here is a summary of how the system works.

A specialized laparoscopy system was designed based upon the same general principle as fluorescence spectroscopy. In contrast to reflection, where light bounces unchanged off of a surface structure, in fluorescence the light is absorbed and then released at a different wavelength (color). When certain tissues are illuminated with light energy from short wavelength (380 - 430 nm) light, the absorbed energy is emitted as light at a longer wavelength (475-800 nm) and is observed as fluorescent light of a different color. The fluorescent light can be observed using special optical filters designed to block the background light and allow the fluorescent light to be viewed.

This fluorescence occurs in the same fashion during illumination with ordinary white light but becomes lost and invisible due to the much brighter illuminating white light. This system allows the selective visualization of the low intensity autofluorescent signals by filtering out the other bright light wavelengths that are in white light. No additional wavelengths of light are used.

Tissues illuminated with regular light emit a small amount of differently colored fluorescent light which is often not seen since the overall illuminating white light is so much brighter. By applying specific filters to the illumination light the amount of fluorescent light emitted can be maximized. By using observation filters, the large amount of illuminating light can be filtered out and the small amount of colored fluorescent light made to stand out and be more easily seen. Since connective tissues and surface epithelia have background autofluorescence (AF), pathologic lesions that grow on the surface of an epithelial layer (such as the peritoneum) may stand out compared with normal tissue when viewed in this manner by having a different light pattern than the normal tissue.

Related Posts and Videos of System:

Initial post on system with surgical photos

Description of how autofluorescence laparoscopy works

Video of how AF laparoscopy works

Surgical Video of how systems works- fluorescent views

First ever video of the “firefly effect”

Additional intraoperative video fluorescent vs. white light