LUCA Device: Precise Thyroid Cancer Screening
The LUCA Device Reveals High Precision in Thyroid Cancer Cells Screening
Thyroid nodules are a usual pathology with 19-76% when screened with ultrasound, with more remarkable regularities in women. Present medical techniques used to examine this cancer consist of executing an ultrasound, adhered to by a Doppler ultrasound, and afterward a biopsy. However, sadly, these techniques provide both low specificity and also low sensitivity. This not enough effectiveness inaccurately being able to diagnose thyroid lumps causes many vague or undetected situations as well as several others that go through unnecessary surgical treatments (false positives) as well as enhance the expense of clinical healthcare, not to mention the reduction of quality of life of patients.
Title: “EU-Funded LUCA Project: Advancing Thyroid Nodule Screening with Novel Multi-Modal Device
The EU-funded job Laser and Ultrasound Co-analyzer for Thyroid Nodules (LUCA) began in 2016, and over its five years of period, it worked with the growth of a brand-new low-priced near-infrared optical device incorporated with ultrasound that searched to offer medical professionals with improved information required to provide better as well as a lot more details results in thyroid nodule screening. The goal of such a device was mainly to allow a far better diagnosis of this kind of cancer because up until now, there were no actual means of identifying whether thyroid growth is benign or deadly.
The LUCA gadget is a multi-modal platform combining near-infrared light, time-resolved spectroscopy (TRS), diffuse relationship spectroscopy (DCS), and ultrasound in one single device.
Clinical screening with LUCA
The research study was recently released in Biomedical Optics Express and authored by members of the consortium records on numerous study cases, and clinical tests carried out to validate the accuracy and top quality of dimensions achieved by the LUCA device.
As a first step, the TRS and DCS modules were examined separately, using phantom1 tests to confirm the efficiency of both under the various European clinical standardization methods. For the former component, a collection of solid phantoms with different absorptions as well as scatterings was used to examine the ability of the tool to identify absorption and spreading changes, while for the last, a set of liquid phantoms with various thicknesses was utilized to evaluate the capacity of the device of measuring the motion of the fragments in suspension in the phantom fluid. The examinations executed did confirm to be successful, confirming the superior performances of both modules.
Title: “LUCA Device Shows Promise in Hemodynamic Characterization of Thyroid Nodules: In Vivo Study and Clinical Testing
Then, as a 2nd step, the team of experts executed a series of in vivo characterization examinations on a model healthy and balanced person. By checking the thyroid gland, concurrently with ultrasound imaging, TRS as well as DCS, several times a day on various days as well as other weeks, they were to identify the accuracy of the LUCA gadget in determining the hemodynamic parameters connected to the thyroid gland.
Recently, the tool has been relocated right into the professional environment and examined on 18 healthy and balanced volunteers. Also, 47 people were identified with thyroid blemishes and were scheduled for thyroidectomy. The LUCA gadget revealed possible for determining the team of nodules as benign or deadly, which were stated as uncertain situations with the timeless ultrasound screening technique. By evaluating the metabolic rate of oxygen usage and overall hemoglobin focus, the tool categorized thirteen benign and four malignant nodules with a level of sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 77%.
Novel Optical-Ultrasound System Enhances Cancer Diagnosis
Dr. Mireia Mora from the August Pi I Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) in Barcelona, Spain, which is responsible for the scientific application of the tool, under the instructions of Prof. Ramon Gomis, highlights the reality that “The demand to enhance the existing criteria of thyroid cancer cells diagnosis has driven us to join this multidisciplinary project. We have taken the primary steps in preclinical screening; however, make sure that with this technology, we will certainly be able to avoid unneeded surgeries as well as thus boost the lifestyle of our clients”.
Dr. Turgut Durduran, the coordinator of the LUCA task, group leader at ICFO of the Medical Optics study group, commented that “this job has permitted us to develop a distinct optical-ultrasound system that we are positive that will certainly find a use in the clinical thyroid cancer testing.” Current developments in diffuse optical techniques have revealed that not only do these methods have the remarkable capacity in this area, yet various other areas as well, such as bust, head, as well as neck cancer, stomach cancer testing and also treatment monitoring, cerebrovascular accidents (ictus), and even for COVID19, to name a few.
” We have learned a lot as well as fear to proceed to work in this line of study because our company believes that this method could considerably enhance the high quality of dimensions, limit diagnosis and also assists analyze in feasible therapies of individuals,” claimed Dr. Turgut Durduran.
Scattered optics to improve medical diagnosis and therapy
Near-infrared diffuse optical spectroscopy is a visual method that gives considerable complementary information to other clinical strategies used for imaging, such as ultrasounds. The LUCA tool includes two different scattered optical spectroscopy technologies (TRS and DCS) to enhance the testing of thyroid nodules for cancer cells. These strategies have made it an utterly novel gadget since it is non-invasive and secure to utilize, mobile, inexpensive; it probes deep enough into the cells (> 1cm deep) to provide essential details regarding the adjacent cells, in this case, the thyroid, as well as it supplies a real-time monitoring evaluation together with the ultrasound equivalent.
The TRS and DCS modules contain custom-made components, such as laser heads and off-the-shelf electronic devices for detectors and electronic procurement devices, which makes them more affordable than any other commercially offered TRS and also DCS devices.
Despite being low cost, the custom established parts enhance efficiency features allowing the LUCA tool to obtain top-notch dimensions of the tissue’s hemodynamics (blood flow and oxygen at the microvascular degree), chemical constitution (water and lipids focus), as well as anatomy.
