Abstract
A novel hand-held hybrid optical-gamma camera (HGC) has previously been described that is capable of displaying co-aligned images from both modalities in a single imaging system. Here, a dedicated NIR imaging system for NIR fluorescence surgical guidance has been developed for combination with the HGC. This work has evaluated the performance of two NIR fluorescence imaging systems using phantom studies, various fluorophores and various experimental configurations. The threshold detectable concentration of ICG and 800CW dyes were investigated for both systems. Bespoke lymph node phantoms simulating metastases and tissue-like layers were constructed to evaluate the detection capability. ICG could be detected at a minimum concentration of 1 mu M for each camera. The lower thresholds for 800CW were 10(-2) and 10(-3) mu M for the modified and NIR cameras, respectively. Both cameras were unable to detect small-sized targets within a 3mm depth, but were able to identify larger targets as deep as 7 mm. Further improvements are required to optimise the NIR-fluorescence systems for subsequent combination with the HGC to undertake dual gamma-NIR fluorescence intraoperative imaging.