from NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C:
Using an infrared video camera developed by researchers at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., surgeons are testing
thermal imaging and image processing to see if they can create useful
maps of brain tumors.

Researchers want to see if the camera, which detects infrared -- or
heat -- emissions might help neurosurgeons better visualize tumors
before they operate and also find tiny clusters of cancerous cells
that might remain after surgery.

NASA scientists already use infrared technology to map Earth's surface
and search for distant objects in the universe. Firefighters use it to
locate people trapped in buildings, and military forces track down
their targets hiding in the dark.

Physicians have used infrared technology for mapping the roots of skin
cancer, but it has never been used for brain tumors until now.

Doctors at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern
California in Los Angeles are using the JPL-developed camera and
infrared imaging in a trial. They're trying to see if they can sketch
tumor margins by detecting temperature changes during surgery, since
tumor cells emit more heat than healthy ones. "The camera's precision
allows it to map temperature differences of one-hundredth of a degree
Celsius at a high resolution," said Dr. Sarath Gunapala, JPL lead
engineer for the camera.

Currently, neurosurgeons delve carefully into the brain and remove as
much of the tumor as they can see under magnification. However, they
may take healthy tissue along with the cancerous cells or leave
residual cells that can grow back along the tumor's margins.

"Brain tumor tissue looks the same as healthy tissue on the edges,"
said Babak Kateb of the Keck School of Medicine, a research fellow and
lead scientist of the project. "Tumor
cells use different biochemical pathways from normal cells, and when
researchers use the infrared camera, they can pick up hotspots or
areas of tissue warmer than normal tissue."

After doctors receive infrared images of the brain, image processing
software marks the boundaries between tumor regions and surrounding
healthy tissue. "We are refining software similar to what our group
has been using for analyzing rocks on Mars and other planets," said
Dr. Wolfgang Fink, JPL senior researcher.

"An advantage of thermal imaging is that it's non-invasive," said Dr.
Peter Gruen, a neurological surgeon at the Keck School of Medicine.
"It measures heat energy emerging from patients without exposing them
to X-rays or intravenous solutions, and is performed without incisions
or contact to the brain tissue."

A clinical study of this proposed mapping process is underway at the
Keck School of Medicine.

For more information on the USC study on the Internet, visit:
http://www.usc.edu/keck.html

For more information on the infrared camera on the Internet, visit:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/technology/features/tech930.html

For more information on NASA technology spinoffs on the Internet,
visit:
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/
Ich höre immer gerne zu,wenn ich auch nicht immer belehrt werden möchte ;-)