Lasers in surgery and medicine
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The clinical usefulness of 5-ALA guided detection of tumor tissue has been demonstrated for a number of malignancies. However, current techniques of intraoperative detection of protoporphyrin IX fluorescence in situ do not offer subcellular resolution. Therefore, discrimination of non-specific 5-ALA induced fluorescence remains difficult. ⋯ Multiphoton microscopy of 5-ALA induced PpIX fluorescence in brain tumor tissue conceptually provides a high resolution diagnostic tool, which in addition to structural information may also provide photochemical/functional information.