Portable real-time optical coherence tomography system for intraoperative imaging and staging of breast cancer

Freddy T. Nguyen, Adam M. Zysk, Jan G. Kotynek, Frank J. Bellafiore, Kendrith M. Rowland, Patricia A. Johnson, Eric J. Chaney, Stephen A. Boppart. Proc. SPIE 6430, Advanced Biomedical and Clinical Diagnostic Systems V, 64300H 2007-02-06. Full Text
Needle-based devices, which are in wide clinical use for needle biopsy procedures, may be augmented by suitable optical techniques for the localization and diagnosis of diseased tissue. Tissue refractive index is one optical contrast mechanism with diagnostic potential. In the case of mammary tissue, for example, recent research indicates that refractive index variations between tissue types may be useful for the identification of cancerous tissue. While many coherence-based forward-sensing devices have been developed to detect scattering changes, none have demonstrated refractive index measurement capabilities. We present a novel needle-based device that is capable of simultaneously measuring refractive index and scattering. Coupled to the sample arm of an optical coherence tomography system, the needle device detects the scattering response and optical pathlength through tissue residing in a fixed-width channel. Near-infrared measurements of tissues and materials with known optical properties using a prototype device will be presented. This work demonstrates the feasibility of integrated in vivo measurement of refractive index and scattering in conjunction with existing clinical needle-based devices.

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