Spinal hernia tissue autofluorescence spectrum

Abstract

The laser intervertebral disc decompression may provide appropriate relief in properly selected patients with contained disc herniations. The present investigation aims to characterise intervertebral disc material by autofluorescence induced by laser light. Degeneration of the intervertebral disc is associated with progressive biochemical changes in disc material. Percutaneous laser disc decompression has become rather popular for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation, but there are problems in the selection of patients. For this purpose, recognition of the disc composition is necessary. We propose a new type of spectroscopic investigation. It is advantageous to the characterization of intervertebral disc material. Intervertebral disc specimens were removed during open surgery from different disc locations. Preoperative patients' MRI was evaluated using the Pfirrmann disc degeneration and Komori scale for migrating of herniated nucleus pulposus. Adjacent slices of stained disc sections were evaluated by histology/histochemistry and autofluorescence spectra. Comparison of the MRI, spectral, histological and histochemical data was performed. The MRI Komori scale correlated with the histology Boos degeneration index. In the histochemistry, collagens other than collagens I and II of the disc were distinguished with best positive correlation coefficient (0.829) and best negative one (-0.904) of proteoglycans of sequester to Boos index. A correlation of the IV Gaussian component of the hernia spectra with the Boos index was established. The Gaussian component correlation with different collagen types and proteoglycan was determined for the disc and sequester. "Autofluorescence-based diagnosis" refers to the evaluation of disc degeneration by histological and histochemical evaluation; it can provide additional data on the degeneration of an intervertebral disc.

Optical spectroscopic methods for diagnostics of intervertebral disc degeneration

“…The data variability not related to the pathology may occur as the luminescence spectrum of tissue is composed of highly overlapping contributions of at least several fluorophores. The main fluorophores such as elastin and collagens emit fluorescence when they are excited by 355 nm light [14,33]. A fluorescence spectrum would change if any changes in the collagen structure or type happened.…”

“…Several different spectroscopic methods of tissue analysis are under development. The autofluorescence phenomenon allows differentiating between traumatized and degenerated disc tissue intraoperatively, and in some cases, it also allows differentiating between the bone and collagen endplate in cervical disc surgery [13], the fluorescence spectroscopy demonstrated a possibility to analyse the LOD [14]. It is well known that Raman scattering and IR absorption spectra allow tracking biochemical changes in the tissue.…”

Recent Advances and the Potential for Clinical Use of Autofluorescence Detection of Extra-Ophthalmic Tissues

“…AFI techniques show great further diagnostic potential-in addition to many other advanced endoscopic imaging techniques-in bladder cancer [188]. AF spectra assessment could also be used to evaluate intervertebral disc compression and degeneration [189]. Finally, multiphoton tomography (MPT) may be applicable to differentiate normal from abnormal spermatogenesis [190].…”

The ROC-based analysis of spectroscopic signals from medical specimens

“…The physical phenomenon we were measuring was autofluorescence: a type of fluorescence caused by only internal properties of materials with neither auxiliary substances nor labels added. The methods of spectroscopic measurements are similar to those described in [21] and [8]. Sediments of smears were deposited on a single-crystal silicon wafer (tray) and dried.…”