DLi Leads The Way for Hyperspectral Imaging

Digital Light Innovations leads the way in surgical hyperspectral imaging capabilities. “In order to treat disease the clinician needs to see it,” said Dr. Karel Zuzak, principal scientist at Digital Light Innovations.

Dr. Zuzak and the team at DLi have created and are in the process of bringing to market a new hyperspectral imaging system. The Digital Light Hyperspectral Imaging System (DLHsl) helps surgeons and clinicians see disease better during surgery.

Recently, Dr. Zuzak published a scientific journal article in Analytical Chemistry to outline the methods and procedures for testing the applications of the DLHsl, a cutting-edge hyperspectral imaging system designed to increase the speed at which images are rendered and recieved. This technological development will be used as a surgical aide during medical procedures. It reduces the risk for complications and the associated financial liability of hospitals and clinicians.

Previous hyperspectral imaging systems obtained images using serial bandpass illumination. That technology was too slow to be used during human surgery because prolonged image acquisition times caused substantial motion artifacts.

The new DLHsl technology, illuminates with bandpass spectra over a spectral range facilitating characterization of tissue-specific spectra that can be measured noninvasively and used to determine the chemical composition of tissue. DLi’s digital light projection technology makes it possible to illuminate the tissue with complex spectra producing chemically encoded images at near video rates. As is needed during surgery, this speed offers a practical solution for monitoring blood flow and visualizing tissue oxygenation in real time.

This system has been established as a platform technology with multiple clinical and surgical applications, including plastic surgery, GI and renal surgery, neurological surgery and clinical monitoring.

The basic proof of principle concept behind the DLHsl was developed and applied during Dr, Zuzak’s tenure at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Zuzak holds three patents on hyperspectral imaging, and has been developing the field of hyperspectral imaging for clinical and surgical utilities for six years.