Intraoperative discrimination of thyroid and parathyroid tissues is fundamental in thyroid surgery. Recent fluorescence studies have shown stronger NIR emission in parathyroid tissue than in thyroid tissue, presenting a potential avenue for the development of a tool for surgical assistance. However, the fluorophore responsible for this emission has not yet been identified. In this work, spectroscopic analysis was performed to ascertain the origin of the emission peaks in parathyroid tissue. Ground-state diffuse reflectance (GSDR) absorption spectroscopy and laser-induced luminescence (LIL) emission spectroscopy were performed in parathyroid, thyroid, and fatty tissue samples and the resulting spectra were compared with the peaks of known fluorophores to identify the origin of each peak. The spectra of the different tissue types were also compared in order to evaluate the wavelength which presents the highest parathyroid emission relative to the emission of the surrounding tissues, representing the ideal wavelength for parathyroid detection. An emission peak in these conditions was observed for both thyroid and parathyroid tissue at 711 nm, with a higher intensity in parathyroid sample, making it suitable for detection applications. These results show a potential avenue for the development of a system allowing parathyroid detection in a surgical setting.

术中区分甲状腺和甲状旁腺组织是甲状腺手术的基础。最近的荧光研究表明，甲状旁腺组织中的近红外发射比甲状腺组织中的更强，这为开发手术辅助工具提供了潜在的途径。然而，造成这种发射的荧光团尚未确定。在这项工作中，进行光谱分析以确定甲状旁腺组织中发射峰的来源。对甲状旁腺、甲状腺和脂肪组织样品进行基态漫反射 (GSDR) 吸收光谱和激光诱导发光 (LIL) 发射光谱，并将所得光谱与已知荧光团的峰进行比较，以确定每个峰的来源。还比较了不同组织类型的光谱，以评估相对于周围组织的发射呈现最高甲状旁腺发射的波长，代表甲状旁腺检测的理想波长。在这些条件下，甲状腺和甲状旁腺组织均在 711 nm 处观察到发射峰，甲状旁腺样品中的发射峰强度较高，使其适合检测应用。这些结果显示了开发允许在手术环境中检测甲状旁腺的系统的潜在途径。