Apparatus and Method for Assessment of Interstitial Tissue

Abstract

A handheld optical coherence tomography imaging and tissue sampling system and method of imaging and sampling a tissue is disclosed. The method includes inserting a catheter probe into a biopsy needle. The biopsy needle can be attached to a hand-held scanning and sampling device. The biopsy needle is maneuvered to an investigation site. A three-dimensional image of the tissue at the investigation site is captured with the catheter probe.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 022,497, filed Jul. 9, 2014, which is owned by the assignee of the instant application and the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT INTEREST[0002]The subject matter described herein was developed in connection with funding provided by the National Institute of Health (NIH) under Grant No. 5R44CA117218-04 and NIH contract No. HHSN26120140006C. The Federal government has rights in the technology.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0003]The invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for optical coherence tomography (“OCT”) imaging for assessment of interstitial tissue. More particularly, OCT images of the interstitial tissue are taken as a needle including an optical probe is moved within the tissue.BACKGROUND[0004]Optical coherence tomography (OCT) can be viewed as an optical analog to u...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention is a method for high-resolution OCT imaging of interstitial tissue by correcting for nonlinearity and distortion caused by tissue noncompliance and the operator's position. The method allows for minimally invasive imaging with low-speed scanning and the use of low-cost disposable probes. It also allows for long-distance imaging without the need for a scanning engine and can capture high-resolution images independent of scanning speed. The method can also be used for fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy imaging synchronously with OCT imaging. The technical effects of the invention include improved accuracy and precision in OCT imaging and reduced tissue damage during the procedure.

Problems solved by technology

The combination of reflected light from the sample arm and reference light from the reference arm can yield an interference pattern when the interferometer arms are substantially matched within the coherence length of the light source.

However, when the imaging has to be done with a needle size probe that passes through several mm to several cm of an interstitial sample (e.g., tissue), the generation of high linearity scan can require the use of rotary or axial movement of the probe within the tissue, which becomes problematic due to tissue friction.

Each of these techniques can prove difficult when imaging interstitial tissue.

High-speed and / or rotational movement of an imaging probe in interstitial tissue can cause tissue morbidity by, for example, catching and / or dislocating the tissue, and thus also degrading the linearity of the scan.

However, the size of the scan is limited to a few mm or less, and therefore is not practical for imaging large size areas within the tissue.

However, a protective tube typically cannot be pushed to penetrate the tissue.

In addition, it increases the overall diameter of a probe, and thus cannot be passed through be 19 gauge or smaller diameter biopsy guidance needles.

Scanning linearity however still remains a serious issue.

Hand-held OCT imaging devices can suffer from inaccurate imaging due to high nonlinearity of the manual scan.

However, this approach is computationally intensive and is not realistic for real-time correction of images.

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