Studies on healthy and neoplastic tissues using positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy and focused histopathological imaging

Samples of healthy and neoplastic myometrial tissues were investigated using Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS). Meaningful differences between normal and diseased tissues were observed for each patient. The differences were also clearly visible for various kinds of lesions in each patient. The set of lifetimes and intensities obtained from PALS was correlated with the histopathological examinations of the same fragments of tissues. Strong coincidence between PALS parameters and histopathological findings was observed only in the case of a very precise correlation of the investigated area in both techniques. Measurements and discussion presented here were carried out to develop a method for measuring the sub-nanometric structure of human tissues. This kind of investigation, using positron probe, creates an opportunity of a new application in Positron Emission Tomography (PET).