Diagnostics

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A research team at Vanderbilt University Mass Spectrometry Research Center has developed the Molecular Image Fusion software system, that by fusing spatial correspondence between histology and imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) measurements and cross-modality modeling, can predict ion distributions in tissue at spatial resolutions that exceed their acquisition resolution. The prediction resolution can even exceed the highest spatial resolution at which IMS can be physically measured. This software has been successfully tested on different IMS datasets and can be extended to other imaging modalities like MRI, PET, CT, profilometry, ion mobility spectroscopy, and different forms of microscopy.

Vanderbilt University researchers have developed a technology that uses spatially offset Raman spectroscopy to obtain depth-resolved information from the margins of tumors. This helps to determine positive or negative tumor margins in applications such as breast lumpectomy, and the technology is currently being investigated for breast cancer margin detection.

Vanderbilt University researchers have designed a system for non-invasive discrimination between normal and cancerous skin lesions. The system combines the depth-resolving capabilities of OCT technique with Raman Spectroscopy's specificity of molecular chemistry. By linking both imagining techniques into a single detector arm, the complexity, cost, and size of previously reported RS-OCT instruments have been significantly improved. The combined instrument is capable of acquiring data sets that allow for more thorough assessment of a sample than existing optical techniques.

Vanderbilt Medical Center researchers have developed a non-invasive and reproducible method of assessing right-ventricular function using contrast-echocardiography. The right-ventricular transit time (RVTT) measures the time needed for echocardiographic contrast to travel from the RV to the bifurcation of the main pulmonary artery. Coupled with the pulmonary transit time (PTT), the time needed for contrast to traverse the entire pulmonary circulation, RVTT is part of a family of diagnostic parameters that can report on RV-specific performance as well as the RV's function relative to that of the pulmonary circuit as a whole.