Design of a Fiber-Bundle Based Multispectral Confocal Endomicroscope for Tissue Visualization During Lung Biopsy Procedures

Abstract

There is a critical need for a technology that can assist doctors in more accurately evaluating lung nodules at the time of biopsy. To address this need, a multispectral fluorescence line-scan confocal endomicroscope was developed that employs a fiber bundle probe to image tissue at the distal tip of the biopsy introducer needle. For all fiber bundle probe-based fluorescence systems, the axial resolution is challenging to measure, mainly due to the nature of the direct contact of the fiber bundle with the object and the different wavelengths of fluorescence emission and excitation. Therefore, in this dissertation, we find a method to accurately measure this system's axial resolution. The problem of pixelization of the fiber bundle causes a drop in the sampling frequency of the system. In this dissertation, we provide several different potential solutions to this problem. The multispectral nature of the instrument allows the simultaneous use of multiple FDA-approved dyes that stain different cellular/tissue compartments in different spectral regions to distinguish between lung cancer and benign conditions of the lung. The imaging system has been used to image normal mouse and rat lung tissue as well as ex vivo human core biopsy lung tissue.