Optical low-coherence tomography of bronchial tissue

Karl J. Bamford; Stephen W. James; Hugh Barr M.D.; Ralph P. Tatam

doi:10.1117/12.372915

15 December 1999 Optical low-coherence tomography of bronchial tissue

Karl J. Bamford, Stephen W. James, Hugh Barr M.D., Ralph P. Tatam

Proceedings Volume 3858, Advanced Materials and Optical Systems for Chemical and Biological Detection; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.372915
Event: Photonics East '99, 1999, Boston, MA, United States

Abstract

An optical fiber based low coherence interferometer for measuring the Epithelium thickness of Bronchial tissue, for early diagnosis of Carcinoma in situ, is presented. Previous simulation of laser induced fluorescence using an electromagnetic scattering model has extracted the relative permittivity value for the Submucosa and Epithelium layers indicating a difference of up to 0.14. The optical system presented here uses a low coherence source operating at 840 nm with a bandwidth of 30 nm, coupled into single mode optical fiber. A Fizeau cavity is formed between the fiber end and the tissue under investigation. A remote processing interferometer is used to monitor changes in permittivity between the different tissue layers. An initial experiment has demonstrated a sensitivity measurement of 40 dB for a permittivity difference measurement of 0.61. Preliminary results have shown that the discontinuity between the Bronchial Epithelium layer and its surrounding medium can be identified allowing the thickness of the Epithelium layer to be measured to an accuracy of 20 micrometers . Since interferometric noise contributions are only significant within the processing interferometer, the fiber optic Fizeau interferometer technique is a strong candidate for the development of an endoscope for the early detection of cancer within Gastrointestinal and Respiratory tracts.

Citation Download Citation

Karl J. Bamford, Stephen W. James, Hugh Barr M.D., and Ralph P. Tatam "Optical low-coherence tomography of bronchial tissue", Proc. SPIE 3858, Advanced Materials and Optical Systems for Chemical and Biological Detection, (15 December 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.372915

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available