Abstract
The brilliance of the synchrotron source, particularly in the infrared range, has made it possible to identify and determine objects of micron and sub-micron size, by coupling this source with a microscope and a Fourier transform spectrometer. This has been the case in particular for archaeological and cultural heritage applications. Beyond this field of application, the identification of objects of biological origin at small scales has been possible, such as the determination of the structure and nature of brain inclusions in Hungtinton's and Alzeihmer's diseases, leukemia markers in single blood cells, and their potential resistance to treatment.
The lecture will illustrate a special case of medical diagnosis: the precise and rapid determination of the level of steatosis contained in a liver undergoing transplantation. The result of close collaboration between physicians, pathologists, biologists and physicists, we were able to identify the specific spectroscopic markers of this disease with the help of the synchrotron source. Realizing the strong diagnostic potential of this discovery, particularly in the case of rapid analysis close to the site of surgery, we have developed a rapid, much more accurate and reliable diagnostic instrument and method. An easy-to-use, robust and relatively low-cost instrument is currently in use at the Institut hépato biliaire de Villejuif (Dr. Catherine Guettier), and is currently being commercialized.
