Imaging techniques for intraoperative visualisation of Low Grade Glioma

Surgical treatment of low-grade gliomas (LGGs) aims for maximal removal of tumour tissue, while minimising the risk of damaging functional areas. LGG is hard to distinguish from healthy brain tissue during surgery and for safe resection a part of the tumour is be left behind. To improve the extent of resection (EOR), a new approach of imaging is required to visualise LGGs intraoperatively. This paper presents an overview of imaging techniques, which could be suitable for this purpose. Absolute requirements were determined and used to select imaging techniques. Included imaging techniques were graded based on relative requirements. In addition to literature study, exploratory experiments were performed with promising techniques. Ultimately, a comparison of the considered techniques was arranged to make a recommendation. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) seemed most promising followed by Raman Spectrocopy (RS). Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), Optical Coherence Elastography (OCE), Infrared Spectrocopy (IRs) and Nonlinear Microscopy also showed potential for intraoperative visualisation of LGGs.