Microscopy Solutions for Neuropathology

Neuropathologists as physicians play an important role in the treatment of patients, for example with a brain tumor, because the result of the neuropathological analysis is a key element for the diagnosis. After the diagnosis is made, neurosurgeons and neurooncologists decide together in a tumor board review about the personalized therapy.

In neurosurgery, imaging techniques with contrast agents are increasingly used to improve intraoperative decision-making.¹  Typically, these systems are aimed at macroscopic visualization of fluorescent areas and rely on surgical microscopes which are equipped with appropriate filters and light sources.¹ For confocal endomicroscopy (CEM),²  this technique has been refined to visualize the microstructure of tissue at high magnification. It delivers images in real time and  in vivo, i.e. without the need to extract tissue.¹  In CEM a scanner probe   – resembling a rigid endoscope – gently contacts the tissue surface in order to reveal cellular and architectural detail at the subsurface level based on a fluorescent agent.¹

In vivo  and in real time