Evaluation of Femtosecond Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for Analysis of Animal Tissues

Abstract

The aim of this work was to evaluate the performance of femtosecond laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (fs-LIBS) for the determination of elements in animal tissues. Sample pellets were prepared from certified reference materials, such as liver, kidney, muscle, hepatopancreas, and oyster, after cryogenic grinding assisted homogenization. Individual samples were placed in a two-axis computer-controlled translation stage that moved in the plane orthogonal to a beam originating from a Ti:Sapphire chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) laser system operating at 800 nm and producing a train of 840 lJ and 40 fs pulses at 90 Hz. The plasma emission was coupled into the optical fiber of a high-resolution intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD)-echelle spectrometer. Timeresolved characteristics of the laser-produced plasmas showed that the best results were obtained with delay times between 80 and 120 ns. Data obtained indicate both that it is a matrix-independent sampling process and that fs-LIBS can be used for the determination of Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Na, and P, but efforts must be made to obtain more appropriate detection limits for Al, Sr, and Zn.

Importance of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for Biomedical Applications: A Comprehensive Review

“…LIBS technique has also been used to distinguish effectively normal and malignant tumour cells from histological sections 56 and to characterize several types of human malignancies. 29 It has also been used to determine the trace metal concentrations in human hair and skin samples [57][58][59] and to determine the elemental composition of liver, kidney, muscle, and hepatopancreas tissues, 60 and even to perform screening of whole human blood. 32 De Souza et al 61 used LIBS technique to investigate the relative elemental composition of chick myocardium tissue.…”

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS): an overview of recent progress and future potential for biomedical applications

“…Despite these challenges, LIBS has already been used to effectively distinguish normal and malignant tumour cells from histological sections [31] and to characterize several types of human malignancies [32], to determine the trace metal concentrations in human hair and skin samples [33,34,35], to determine the elemental composition of liver, kidney, muscle, and hepatopancreas tissues [36], and even to perform screening of whole human blood [37]. The usefulness of LIBS for characterizing or identifying human soft tissues for disease diagnosis is exemplified by the small amount of sample required and the potential ability to perform a LIBS analysis in vivo by delivering the excitation laser pulse and collecting the plasma emission through a single optical fibre probe [38].…”

Prospect for feedback guided surgery with ultra-short pulsed laser light

“…5A). The laser induced plasma spectrum can be used to distinguish biological samples based on their chemical composition [77–80]. In particular, bone and other calcified tissue may be distinguished from soft tissue based on the strong calcium emission peaks [81–83] (Fig.…”