Cloud-based NIRFAST server for tissue parameters recovery: Laser and Ultrasound Co-Analyser of thyroid nodules

A cloud-based NIRFAST server has been developed as a standalone tool for recovery of human thyroid hemodynamic parameters. The methodology utilize data from three complimentary diagnostic techniques: multi-spectral time-resolved spectroscopy (TRS) to measure concentrations of tissue constituents, diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) to assess perfusion and ultrasound (US) images for optical probes guidance and building the tissue model. The recovery procedures benefit from using finite elements modelling and data processing based on highly massive parallel algorithms running on graphical processors with NVidia CUDA technology. The total execution time of thyroid hemodynamic parameters recovery is <120s. The server communication and calculation procedures are user-configurable through setting files. Therefore, the modular software architecture and remote access through a network interface make the server a universal tool applicable within a range of biomedical optics applications. The server can work as a post-processing box within an instrumental environment as shown in this work, a WWW-based software as a service or as a laboratory server. The NIRFAST server and methodology of analysing TRS/DCS/US data tuple were tested in-vivo on two thyroid malignant cancer patients showing differentiation in hemodynamic parameters (oxygenation and perfusion) between malignant and healthy tissue.