Application of Virtual Optical Biopsy in Medical Imaging
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Lee, Wen-Jeng
Abstract
There are four kinds of widely used modalities in clinical medicine, X-ray, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound and nuclear medicine. However, the spatial resolution of these modalities is in the range of millimeters. This kind of resolution is not enough to provide information on the histological or cellular level.
Recent advance of biophotonic technology enables us to obtain micrometer or even nanometer structure information in the living tissue. Under the exposure of intense laser light, there will be naturally occurring second harmonic generation and third harmonic generation signals. Using these signals, we can build a noninvasive high resolution three dimensional virtual optical biopsy system.
The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the clinical value of virtual optical biopsy using harmonic generation microscope. In the thesis, we discuss the value of virtual optical biopsy in three different kinds of clinical scenario.
In the hamster lung biopsy study, we study the ability of virtual optical biopsy to aid the traditional biopsy. In this study, the role of virtual biopsy is not to replace pathology examination but to aid the clinical biopsy procedure. We found that the specimen will not be altered after virtual optical biopsy. Traditional pathology exam can be performed after virtual optical biopsy. We use 6% acetic acid to enhance the third harmonic signal from the specimen. The reaction from acetic acid is transient and reversible. The acetic acid will not influence the result of subsequent pathology examination. Using virtual optical biopsy, we can evaluate the adequacy of the specimen and obtain preliminary result.
In the study of tympanic membrane, we evaluate the role of virtual optical biopsy in the tissue not suitable for traditional biopsy. We can obtain three dimensional information of tympanic membrane and can even reconstruct the whole tympanic membrane by combine multiple images. The three dimensional collagen fiber structures can be obtained from virtual optical biopsy. In the future, the surgeon may use virtual optical biopsy to guide tympanic surgery by not cutting too much of supporting radial fibers in the tympanic membrane. In this way, the complication of hearing impairment from tympanic membrane surgery will be decreased.
In the clinical trial of diabetes, we study the role of noninvasive virtual optical biopsy in patient with diabetes. We successfully obtain high quality images in varies patients without any complications. This study proves that virtual optical biopsy is a clinically safe and useful modality. To quantify the collagen fiber orientation in skin, we propose three new indexes, collagen fiber area ratio, collagen fiber mean orientation and collagen fiber orientation variability. Although there is no statistically significant difference of these indices between the diabetes group and control group, there is a trend of lower collagen fiber ratio, and lower collagen fiber orientation variability in the diabetes group. This finding is compatible with the fact that there may be more collagen fiber degradation in the diabetes patients. Further study of collagen fiber should be performed. Virtual optical biopsy may provide clinically useful information on collagen fiber in skin in the future.
Subjects
Virtual optical biopsy
Harmonic generation microscopy
Biopsy
Tympanic membrane
Diabetes
Collagen fiber
SDGs
Type
thesis
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