Concurrent MRI and diffuse optical tomography of breast after indocyanine green enhancement

Abstract

We present quantitative optical images of human breast in vivo. The images were obtained by using near-infrared diffuse optical tomography (DOT) after the administration of indocyanine green (ICG) for contrast enhancement. The optical examination was performed concurrently with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam on patients scheduled for excisional biopsy or surgery so that accurate image coregistration and histopathological information of the suspicious lesions was available. The ICG-enhanced optical images coregistered accurately with Gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance images validating the ability of DOT to image breast tissue. In contrast to simple transillumination, we found that DOT provides for localization and quantification of exogenous tissue chromophore concentrations. Additionally our use of ICG, an albumin bound absorbing dye in plasma, demonstrates the potential to differentiate disease based on the quantified enhancement of suspicious lesions.optical properties ͉ contrast agents ͉ MRI coregistration

Sources of Absorption and Scattering Contrast for Near-Infrared Optical Mammography

“…As optical diagnostic methods become more clinically applicable, there is a growing need to identify and quantify sources of endogenous contrast in breast (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11). This article presents the results of quantitative NIR spectroscopic studies in 28 subjects ranging in age from 18 to 64 years.…”

Near‐infrared imaging of breast cancer using optical contrast agents

“…Neither Ntziachristos et al [52] nor Intes et al [51] exploited ICG extravasation. Ntziachristos et al only measured ICG absorption over 5 min after bolus administration in 3 cases; during this period, most of the ICG was still intravascular, where it only acts as an enhancer of hemoglobin absorption.…”

“…Only a few investigators have used extrinsic contrast with mostly reporting measurements of ICG (indocyanine green) absorption [48][49][50][51][52][53]. ICG fluorescence has only been investigated in two studies [54,55], while three publications on omocianine fluorescence are available at the time of writing [56][57][58].…”

“…In malignant tumors, ICG bound to macromolecules can extravasate through the larger pores of tumor vessels [52]. ICG is eliminated from blood by the liver and has a short half life of a few minutes [77].…”

“…The first studies using ICG as a contrast agent to enhance absorption were carried out by Ntziachristos et al [52] using a concurrent set-up with DOT and MR scanning under identical geometry. Their DOT worked as a time-domain system with an 830 nm laser diode with a pulse width of 50 ps.…”