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Brain needle biopsy (BNB) is performed to collect tissue when precise neuropathological diagnosis is required to provide information about tumor type, grade, and growth patterns. The principal risks associated with this procedure are intracranial hemorrhage (due to clipping blood vessels during tissue extraction), incorrect tumor typing/grading due to non-representative or non-diagnostic samples (e.g. necrotic tissue), and missing the lesion. We present an innovative device using sub-diffuse optical tomography to detect blood vessels and Raman spectroscopy to detect molecular differences between tissue types, in order to reduce the risks of misdiagnosis, incorrect tumour grading, and non-diagnostic samples. The needle probe integrates optical fibers directly onto the external cannula of a commercial BNB needle, and can perform measurements for both optical techniques through the same fibers. This integrated optical spectroscopy system uses diffuse reflectance signals to perform a 360-degree reconstruction of the tissue adjacent to the biopsy needle, based on the optical contrast associated with hemoglobin light absorption, thereby localizing blood vessels. Raman spectra measurements are also performed interstitially for tissue characterization. A detailed sensitivity of the system is presented to demonstrate that it can detect absorbers with diameters <300 µm located up to ∼2 mm from the biopsy needle core, for bulk optical properties consistent with brain tissue. Results from animal experiments are presented to validate blood vessel detection and Raman spectrum measurement without disruption of the surgical workflow. We also present phantom measurements of Raman spectra with the needle probe and a comparison with a clinically validated Raman spectroscopy probe.
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