Raman Molecular Imaging For Digital Pathology

The use of digital pathology techniques without stains or reagents is gaining traction for use in clinical practice, particularly for "gray" diagnostic areas where tride-and-true physical stains and or chemicals may not provide high enough specificity for diagnosis.  I have been following the work being done by ChemImage and their clinical projects with some exciting results.  Check out their offerings and results with Raman and hyperspectral imaging.

Accurate interpretation of pathology specimens can be very challenging for a number of tissue and disease types. Traditional pathological evaluation of tissues and cells is a relatively subjective evaluation of spatially complex stained tissue samples. Since a physician makes treatment decisions based on the evaluation of tissue by a pathologist, accuracy is of the utmost importance.

ChemImage’s Raman Molecular Imaging (RMI) approach using the FALCON II™ enables the objective assessment of tissues without the use of stains or reagents.

H&E Stained Prostate Tissue         Raman Image of Unstained Prostate Tissue

(Performed in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic and Allegheny General Hospital)

Raman Molecular Imaging Gives Pathologists:

• Molecular specificity
• Sensitivity to subtle molecular differences
• Measurement of Raman signals from the molecular constituents of a sample without reagents
• Measurements that are spatially localized within a given sample

Raman molecular images are acquired from tissue samples illuminated by a laser in a microscope. The images are analyzed using chemometric-based classification algorithms to objectively classify the sample in terms of disease state. RMI is used to create, in effect, a digital stain of tissues and cells—without the use of reagents.