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October 31st 2012 - In the first volume of 2013, the paper of Diederik Grootendorst et al:
“Evaluation of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (Endorem®) as a photoacoustic contrast agent for intra-operative nodal staging” Will be published in Contrast Media & Molecular Imaging (Vol. 8, (1), pp. 83, January/February 2013 doi: 10.1002/cmmi.1498)
The work summarized in this paper was performed by researchers from BMPI in strong collaboration with researchers from various other groups within MIRA (NeuroImaging, Biomedical Chemistry, Nanobiophysics) and the Netherlands Cancer Institute Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (NKI-AVL).
The research of Diederik focuses on the applicability of photoacoustic (PA) tomographic imaging as an intra-operative modality for examining the status of resected lymph nodes. In the current work the authors used animal studies to verify the potential of superparamagnetic contrast agents (SPIO’s) as photoacoustic contrast agent in biological tissue. The PA images were compared using histology, vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) and 14 T MR-imaging. The PA setup available in BMPI was able to detect the iron oxide accumulations in all the nodes containing the nanoparticles and nodes without SPIO enhancement did not show up in any of the PA scans. These findings open up possibilities for intra-operative analysis of human lymph nodes to investigate the presence or absence of metastatic malignancies.
For more information about the paper and the work on photoacoustic imaging of melanoma lymph nodes, contact Diederik Grootendorst (D.J.Grootendorst@utwente.nl). For more information about other projects on (biomedical) photoacoustic imaging, contact dr. Srirang Manohar (s.manohar@utwente.nl).