Setting Standards for Reporting and Quantification in Fluorescence-Guided Surgery.

Purpose: Intraoperative fluorescence imaging (FI) is a promising technique that could potentially guide oncologic surgeons toward more radical resections and thus improve clinical outcome. Despite the increase in the number of clinical trials, fluorescent agents and imaging systems for intraoperative FI, a standardized approach for imaging system performance assessment and post-acquisition image analysis is currently unavailable.

Procedures: We conducted a systematic, controlled comparison between two commercially available imaging systems using a novel calibration device for FI systems and various fluorescent agents.