Patent Document ID: 5465718
Application ID: 08073353
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for imaging tumor tissue adjacent to nerve tissue to aid in selective resection of tumor tissue without destroying nerve tissue, comprising: (a) illuminating an area of interest with a source of electromagnetic radiation (emr) containing wavelengths of emr absorbed by a dye; (b) obtaining a video signal of the area of interest as a series of frames and processing the series of frames into an averaged control image; (c) stimulating the nerve with an appropriate paradigm to activate the nerve; (d) obtaining a nerve subsequent series of frames at the time of stimulation and processing the nerve subsequent series of frames into a nerve subsequent averaged image; (e) obtaining a nerve difference image by subtracting the averaged control image from the nerve subsequent averaged image to image the active nerve; (f) administering the dye into vasculature perfusing the area of interest; (g) obtaining a tumor subsequent series of frames and processing the tumor subsequent series of frames into a tumor subsequent averaged image; and (h) obtaining a tumor difference image by subtracting the averaged control image from the tumor subsequent averaged image to visualize the tumor.