Autofluorescence Imaging of Parathyroid and Thyroid Under Visible and Near-IR Light Excitation

Identifying parathyroid glands during surgery is challenging and time-consuming due to their small size (3–5 mm) and camouflaged appearance in the background of the thyroid, lymph nodes, fat, and other neck structures. For the gland itself, it is also important to differentiate abnormal ones from normal ones. Accidental damage or removal of the normal glands can result in complications like hypocalcemia, which may necessitate lifelong medication dependence, and, in extreme cases, lead to death. The study of autofluorescence optical properties of normal and abnormal parathyroid glands and the surrounding tissue will be helpful for developing non-invasive detection devices. The near-infrared (NIR) autofluorescence characteristics of parathyroid and thyroid tissues have been studied extensively and are now used for parathyroid gland detection during surgery. Additionally, there have been a few reports on the UV-visible light-excited autofluorescence characteristics of these tissues with a focus on spectroscopy. However, there is a lack of high-resolution, side-by-side autofluorescence imaging comparisons of both tissue types under various excitation wavelengths, ranging from visible to NIR. We developed a standalone tabletop autofluorescence imaging system to acquire images of ex vivo specimens in the operating room under different excitation wavelengths: visible 405 nm, 454 nm, 520 nm, 628 nm, and NIR 780 nm. Autofluorescence imaging features of parathyroid adenomas for each excitation wavelength were described and compared. It was found that visible light excites much stronger autofluorescence from parathyroid adenoma tissue compared to NIR light. However, NIR excitation provides the best intensity difference/contrast between parathyroid adenoma and thyroid tissue, making it optimal for differentiating these two tissue types, and detecting parathyroid adenoma during surgery. The high fluorescent site under the NIR 780 nm excitation also generates high fluorescence under visible excitation wavelengths. Heterogeneous fluorescence patterns were observed in most of the parathyroid adenoma cases across all the excitation wavelengths.