Assembly and characterization of a fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy system for skin lesions diagnostic

The fluorescence spectra and fluorescence lifetime analysis in biological tissues has been presented as a technique of a great potential for tissue characterization for diagnostic purposes. The objective of this study is to assemble and characterize a fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy system for diagnostic of clinically similar skin lesions in vivo. The fluorescence lifetime measurements were performed using the Time Correlated Single Photon Counting (Becker & Hickl, Berlin, Germany) technique. Two lasers, one emitting at 378 nm and another at 445 nm, are used for excitation with 20, 50 and 80 MHz repetition rate. A bifurcated optical fiber probe conducts the excitation light to the sample, the collected light is transmitted through bandpass filters and delivered to a hybrid photomultiplier tube detector. The fluorescence spectra were obtained by using a portable spectrometer (Ocean Optics USB-2000-FLG) with the same excitation sources. An instrument response function of about 300 ps was obtained and the spectrum and fluorescence lifetime of a standard fluorescent molecule (Rhodamine 6G) was measured for the calibration of the system ((4.1 ± 0.3) ns). The assembled system was considered robust, well calibrated and will be used for clinical measurements of skin lesions.