High-powered dye laser for photodynamic therapy

As Photodynamic Therapy becomes more widely accepted by the medical community the need for specialized, low maintenance high efficiency light sources increases. We report on the design and performance of a medical dye laser which can be configured for activation of photosensitizers from 630 nm to 720 nm. The dye laser is pumped by the second harmonic of a surgical Nd:YAG laser, which is fiberoptically coupled to the dye laser. Design and performance of the system will be presented along with biological comparison of its performance to that of an Argon/Dye system as an activation source for PhotofrinR.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.