Detection of parathyroid gland auto-fluorescence using a near infrared fluorescence imaging: comparison with pde-neo® and FLUOBEAM 800®

Abstract

Detection of autofluorescence （AF） from the parathyroid gland （PG） using near-infrared fluorescence imaging （NIFI） is useful for identifying PGs in thyroid and parathyroid surgeries. We measured the AF of 11 PGs from 7 patients using two commercially available NIFIs, pde-neo® （Hamamatsu Photonics） and FLUOBEAM 800® （FLUOPTICS）, and compared their AF intensities and basic characteristics of each device. Both devices could detect the significant AF from PGs with no significant difference between the devices. Given that no differences were found in detection sensitivity between the devices, pde-neo® is useful for ex vivo identification of resected parathyroid glands for auto-transplantation, whereas FLUOBEAM 800® is useful for identifying unnoticed PGs for in situ preservation in the surgical field.