Hybridization of the Position Sensitive Tunable Laser Diode Microspectroscopy and Laser Ionization Mass Spectrometry on the Scanning Microscopic Stage for Multiparametric Colocalization Imaging
To date there are known methods for mass-spectrometric control of the surgical samples, including MALDI imaging which applies a laser beam. But in most cases these methods provide nonselective measurements of the samples, which were previously identified and labeled by the morphologists or pathologists. However, a tissue itself is not only a micro-heterogeneous medium, but it is also heterogeneous in the chemical composition of the constituent cells. Chemistry of the single cells and tissue zones is a diagnostic criterion both for determination of the healthy tissue type and for differential diagnostics of the cellular pathologies. Consequently, it is necessary to perform either a position-sensitive sample scanning or microspectrophotometric measurements in situ at the sample holder of the mass-spectrometer. The former cannot be performed within the acceptable time for surgery and express-diagnostics needs, which includes several minutes, while the latter is rather possible and requires a targeted analysis in the ion beam with the subsequent filtration of the excess exposure. We propose to hybridize a trinocular stereoscopic microscope with scanning laser ionization imaging module (MALDI, ELDI, MALDESI) and tunable diode laser spectroscopy module (TDLSM).
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