Medical Design Briefs - October 2023 - 20

Mass Spectrometry Diagnostics
be implemented in a compact MS source.
First generation mid-IR OPO lasers were
also bulky and expensive until the creation
of a shoebox sized mid-IR OPO
laser head for MS sources. While still
requiring a briefcase sized power supply
with internal water cooling, OPOTEK was
successful in the creation of the Opolette
2940, a 2.94 µm OPO laser with a laser
head footprint of 9.5 × 4.5 × 7.5 in.
To shrink the footprint to the smallest
possible size while keeping costs under
control, the company removed the internal
mechanisms for tunability since they
are not required for mass spectrometry
and integrated one of the smallest OPO
pump lasers commercially available. Considerable
research also focused on testing
numerous fiber optical interfaces for safe
and easy delivery of laser light to the area
of interest. The OPO laser ships to endusers
and OEM integrators without the
need for installation by an engineer. The
final cost of the system is less than half the
cost of an Er:YAG laser, lower in cost than
OPO lasers of comparable specifications.
Future product development is focused
on removal of the external briefcase
sized power supply and its internal
water-cooling requirements. The goal is
to increase the efficiency of the OPO
pump laser so that only a 24-V power supply
is needed. Internal water cooling will
be replaced with a simple heatsink and
fan. The end product in development
would retain close to the same volume as
the current generation. Other areas of
advancement are concentrating on increasing
the sample rate (repetition rate)
of the laser to speed up analyses or provide
more sample material for detection.
With a compact, cost-effective mid-IR
laser solution in hand, integration into a
mass spectrometer equipped with an atmospheric
pressure ESI source will impact
the medical field. Biological tissue,
for example, can now be analyzed in
real- time during a procedure at the doctor's
office or in surgery. In addition,
with the advent of artificial intelligence
and sophisticated surgical robots, surgeries
would gain a diagnostic tool to
power doctor-less hospitals where the
surgeon performs the operation from a
different location.
Samples no longer need to be sent to a lab and can provide medical personnel with fast answers during critical
surgical procedures. (Credit: OPOTEK)
OPO Lasers help ensure the pinnacle of functionality in a compact design that helps to reduce the
overall size and cost of mass spectrometers. (Credit: OPOTEK)
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This type of diagnostic tool could be
used for procedures such as tumor removal
because it can identify where the diseased
tissue stops and the healthy tissue
starts. Similar real-time sampling could be
used to analyze anything from biological
tissue to explosive material, in the moment,
without shipping samples to a lab.
The inherent focusability of lasers are
also capable of sampling incredibly small
size areas measured in tens of micrometers,
a key benefit for MS imaging. With
this fine level of selection criteria, it is
possible to take a complex sample and
raster and move the laser to different areas
and only remove the material from a
very small area.
With a slice or cross section of a tissue
sample, for example, it is possible to desorb
the material piece by piece, in sizes
ranging from 10 to 100 µm, saving and
analyzing the data and then moving the
laser to the next spot and repeating the
process. This can produce a detailed image
map of the entire cross section.
As MS uses become more widespread
and advancements continue, particularly
in the medical field, it will become increasingly
important for equipment to be
as compact and affordable as possible.
OPO lasers help ensure the pinnacle of
functionality in a compact design that
helps to reduce the overall size and cost
of mass spectrometers. In combination
with improved ionization techniques that
allow the equipment to be used in atmospheric
conditions, mass spectrometry
will impact medical diagnostics and research
for years to come.
This article was written by Dr. Mark
Little, Technical and Scientific Marketing
Consultant for OPOTEK LLC, Carlsbad,
CA. OPOTEK manufactures tunable
lasers for research and diagnostics,
including photoacoustic, spectroscopy,
diagnostics, hyperspectral imaging, and
medical research. For more information,
call 760-929-0770; e-mail, support@
opotek.com, or visit www.opotek.com.
Medical Design Briefs, October 2023

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Medical Design Briefs - October 2023

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