Complete parameterization of temporally and spectrally resolved laser induced fluorescence data with applications in bio-photonics

We present a set of spectrally and temporally resolved clinical fluorescence data-with two separate excitation wavelengths-that was recorded in vivo. We demonstrate that data in the spectral and temporal domains are in certain ways coupled and provide a method for integrated and effective parameterization of spectrally and temporally resolved fluorescence (i.e., time-resolved emission spectra). This parameterization is based on linear algebra, matrix formulation and system identification. We demonstrate how to empirically extract single exponentially decaying components and provide rectified emission spectra without prior knowledge. We investigate the potential for improved cancer diagnostics according to the reduced parameters along the various domains. In this case, in terms of cancer diagnostics, we were unable to identify any benefits of simultaneously measuring both the temporal and spectral properties of the observed fluorescence. However, we note that this may be explained by an important experimental bias present in many studies of optical cancer diagnostics, namely, that, in general, suspected lesions always differ visually from the neighboring healthy tissue.