BACKGROUND: Intraoperative parathyroid gland

identification and preservation is often a challenge even in the hands of experienced surgeons as they could be indistinguishable from fat or thyroid tissue. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to demon-strate the use of the Cytoscan Model E-II, which uses orthogonal polarization spectral (OPS) imag-ing technology, as an intravital microscope in iden-tifying parathyroid glands intraoperatively and differentiating the parathyroid glands from fat and thyroid tissue in a rabbit model. METHODS: The necks of 4 New England white rab-bits were explored with the animals under a gener-al anesthesia. The Cytoscan was used to obtain images of the vasculature of tissue suspected to be parathyroid, fat, and thyroid tissue. These were con-firmed by histologic evaluation. RESULTS: All tissues were correctly identified by the Cytoscan and confirmed by histologic analysis. There was an obvious difference in the images obtained of fatty tissue as compared with parathy-roid tissues. There was also an appreciable differ-ence between parathyroid and thyroid tissue based on the difference in vascularity. CONCLUSIONS: OPS imaging technology can be used in identifying parathyroid glands based on the difference in vascularity from fat and the pattern and density of vessels when compared with thyroid tissue in a rabbit model. SIGNIFICANCE: The Cytoscan may play a future role in real time intraoperative identification of human parathyroid glands. Future investigation is warranted.(Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2001;125