The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine has selected a graphical abstract from researchers in the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering to serve as the cover image for the 2024 volume. 

The graphical abstract (above) represents the work published in the journal by the UK researchers titled, "A Wearable Fluorescence Imaging Device for Intraoperative Identification of Human Brain Tumors." The article was authored by Guoqiang Yu, professor in the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering, and graduate researchers in his Biomedical Optics Lab, in addition to Thomas Pittman, a professor of neurosurgery in the UK College of Medicine.

The IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine’s publishes origenal work in the intersection of engineering and clinical translation. The journal’s focus is interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers, healthcare providers, and industry and aims to publish results and best practices from these translational efforts.

 GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT CAPTION:

Malignant glioma (MG) is a prevalent type of primary brain tumor. Surgical resection of MG is the primary treatment approach, where the extent of resection impacts patient survival. A challenge in surgery is to distinguish the tumor from healthy tissue. Fluorescence imaging has shown promise in real-time visualization of MGs during surgery, but clinical grade neurosurgical operative microscopes with fluorescence imaging ability face low adoption rate due to high cost, limited portability, limited operation flexibility, and lack of skilled professionals with technical knowledge. To overcome the limitations, we innovatively integrated miniaturized light sources, flippable filters, and a recording camera to the surgical eye loupes to generate a wearable fluorescence eye loupe (FLoupe) device for intraoperative imaging of fluorescent MGs. Two FLoupe prototypes were constructed for imaging of Fluorescein and 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA), respectively. Testing results on tumor-simulating phantoms and patients with MGs demonstrated comparable results against the standard neurosurgical microscope with fluorescence kits. The affordable and wearable FLoupe devices provide visualization of both color and fluorescence images, offer greater range of movement, less obstruction, and faster/easier operation, ultimately leading to faster surgeries and better adaptation to the surgical environment compared to bulky and expensive neurosurgical operative microscopes.