Development of Low-Cost Instrumentation for Single Point Autofluorescence Lifetime Measurements.

ABSTRACT: Autofluorescence lifetime measurements, which can provide label-free readouts in biological tissues, contrasting e.g. different types and states of tissue matrix components and different cellular metabolites, may have significant clinical potential for diagnosis and to provide surgical guidance. However, the cost of the instrumentation typically used currently presents a barrier to wider implementation. We describe a low-cost single point time-resolved autofluorescence instrument, exploiting modulated laser diodes for excitation and FPGA-based circuitry for detection, together with a custom constant fraction discriminator. Its temporal accuracy is compared against a "gold-standard" instrument incorporating commercial TCSPC circuitry by resolving the fluorescence decays of reference fluorop

SUBMITTER: Lagarto J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5583312 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature