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Book Review
how to use a spatial light modulator to generate arbitrary vec- a brief mea culpa兲 the chapter can serve as a good tutorial for
tor wavefronts. The chapter provides one example of the latter students who are not familiar with the field. The chapter is
technique by demonstrating the generation of radially polar- augmented by very clear colored figures that present the stu-
ized light for fluorescent imaging with a concomitant im- dent with an easily understood physical and analytical picture
provement of resolution. of the instrumentation, the theory, and the analysis. Neverthe-
The second chapter describes spectral optical imaging. less, due to the dated nature of the citations, much of the more
This is a field that derives from hyperspectral imaging in air- recent technical developments and applications of super-
borne and satellite surveillance systems in which each pixel of resolution optical microscopy, both from the Hell group and
the digital image contains spectral information. This develop- more importantly from other groups, is not included in this
ment in biology and medicine is presented in an extensive chapter.
chapter that is replete with informative and colorful illustra- Biomedical Optical Imaging contains several important
tions from Farkas’ group. The strength of this chapter is a contributions on the applications of various optical technolo-
balanced presentation of theory, instrumentation, computa- gies to medical diagnostics; these contributions range from
tional techniques, classification algorithms, and biological ap- near-infrared fluorescent probes and contrast agent develop-
plications of spectral imaging. The materials presented in this ment to fluorescence and spectroscopic markers of cervical
chapter may have applications in a variety of optical imaging neoplasia. Additionally, there are useful contributions on im-
techniques since spectral imaging enhances the information aging in thick tissues using broadband diffuse optical spec-
content of images and therefore may improve both the con- troscopy, the use of near-infrared light to detect brain activity,
trast and the ability to segment biomedical images. and a recent chapter with citations up to the year 2008 on
Fujimoto’s group contributed a chapter that highlights their optical reporter genes.
seminal contributions in the field of optical coherence tomog- I selected one contribution to discuss in this review.
raphy 共OCT兲, but also cites key and important contributions Perusal of the literature indicates the clinical importance of
from other groups. Their chapter is a very clear presentation optical spectroscopy in both diagnostics and therapeutics, i.e.,
of the theory and the instrumentation 共including light sources
photodynamic therapy 共PDT兲. Photomedicine is a real success
and detectors兲, and it is focused on important applications
story and is a strong motivation for scientists and engineers to
共illustrated in color images兲 in ophthalmology, developmental
pursue fundamental research in biomedical optics in all its
biology, and optical biopsy. Their contribution is enhanced by
manifestations. Katarina Svanberg’s group contributed an ex-
a discussion of detection sensitivity, noise, and signal process-
tensive review of fluorescence imaging in medical diagnos-
ing. The chapter is a sound introduction to several types of
tics. As the authors correctly state in their chapter, “early di-
OCT based on both time-domain and spectral or Fourier do-
agnosis of malignancies remains the most important
main detection; but a more detailed discussion of polarization-
prognostic factor in the treatment of cancer.” Here is a rich
sensitive OCT would be useful. A major problem in biomedi-
cal optical imaging is how to differentiate normal and field for biomedical optics; the impact and success of this
abnormal cells and tissues. Their inclusion of OCT images research is literally saving and improving lives. The authors
juxtaposed to classical histopathology is an exemplar that describe several important advances in fluorescence tech-
should be followed in other biomedical imaging studies. niques and clinical instruments up to the year 2003. As the
From the group of Petra Schwille there is an extensive authors clearly demonstrate with the aid of colored clinical
contribution on two-photon correlation spectroscopy. Their images, the design and utility of the clinical techniques in-
contribution, which includes clear and colorful figures, is an clude the optical detection of tumors in the lower urinary
excellent student tutorial that is current up to the year 2002 on tract, the bronchus, the female genital tract, skin, the head and
the subject of single-molecule fluorescence correlation spec- neck, and the gastrointestinal tract.
troscopy 共FCS兲. While FCS is not an optical imaging tech- I now present my summary of the many positive features
nique, it is an extremely sensitive technique to probe particle of Biomedical Optical Imaging. The editors selected eminent
movement, molecular dynamics, and chemical reactions in so- contributors who represent a range of scientific, technical, and
lution and in cells. The use of kinetic models in the analysis of clinical interests. Each of the contributor’s groups made a
the autocorrelation function 共for a single fluorescent species兲 series of seminal contributions to the advancement of bio-
is the basis of the technique. This contribution provides a medical optics. Their contributions are well illustrated with
good introduction to the ancillary techniques of dual volume numerous color figures that illustrate the theory, instrumenta-
and dual color cross-correlation analysis with two-photon ex- tion, methods of analysis, and biomedical applications.
citation to investigate molecular dynamics. At first glance the combination of two outstanding scien-
A review of the field of nanoscopy 共optical methods to tists who served as editors, the outstanding scientific reputa-
provide wide-field imaging with nanometer resolution兲 is con- tions of the principal contributors, and the imprimatur of
tributed from Stefan Hell’s group. The fundamental problem Oxford University Press with its reputation of excellence in
that the Hell group addresses is how to improve the optical scholarly publishing elicits the image of a book that is clearly
resolution 共that was formerly limited by diffraction兲 in a wide- written, well illustrated, easily read, and meets the high stan-
field optical microscope. While all of the references date from dards of scholarly publishing that is commensurate with the
2002 or earlier 共there is one citation from 2007 together with reputations of the editors, the contributors, and the publisher.
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Book Review
While the quality of the contributions is consistent with the to withhold my recommendation for Biomedical Optical
above expectations, there are two caveats that belie these ex- Imaging.
pectations. First, there exist an extraordinarily high number of
typographical errors, which occur throughout the book: in the Barry R. Masters is a visiting scientist in
the Department of Biological Engineering
preface, in the individual chapters, and in the index. In a book at the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
of 422 pages I recorded a minimum of 402 typographic errors. ogy and a visiting scholar in the Depart-
Second, my reading of the references in the book indicates ment of the History of Science at Harvard
University. He was formerly a professor in
that although the book was published in 2009, most of the anatomy at the Uniformed Services Univer-
references and much of the content of the chapters are from sity of the Health Sciences. He is a Fellow
of the Optical Society of America, SPIE,
the period prior to 2002. For example, the chapter from the and the American Association for the Ad-
group of Winfried Denk ends with the quotation: “…reflects vancement of Science. Professor Masters
the status of the field in 2003.” An exception is the book’s has published 81 refereed research papers and 128 book chapters
and articles. He is the editor or author of Noninvasive Diagnostic
final chapter on the topic of optical reporter genes that con- Techniques in Ophthalmology; Medical Optical Tomography: Func-
tains references up to the year 2008. tional Imaging and Monitoring; Selected Papers on Confocal Micros-
In summary, the onerous number of typographical errors copy; Selected Papers on Optical Low-Coherence Reflectometry
and Tomography; Selected Papers on Multiphoton Excitation Mi-
due to typesetting that occurs in the book is a distraction to croscopy; Confocal Microscopy and Multiphoton Excitation Micros-
the reader. In addition, the severely dated content of the book, copy: the Genesis of Live Cell Imaging; and 共with Peter So兲 Hand-
the insufficient physical and mathematical detail in the intro- book of Biomedical Nonlinear Optical Microscopy. He is currently
writing a new book to be published by Cambridge University Press:
ductory materials of each chapter, the lack of financial disclo- Superresolution Optical Microscopy. Professor Masters is a member
sure from corporate partners, and the lack of contextual analy- of the editorial board of Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimen-
sis 共the discussion of each group’s contributions in relation to tal Ophthalmology. His research interests include the development
of in vivo microscopy of the human eye and skin, biomedical imag-
the works of other groups兲 of the various techniques together ing and spectroscopy, and the fractal analysis of branching vascular
with a discussion of their validation and limitations forces me patterns.
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