All fiber optic multi-modality imaging endo-speckle-fluoroscope for disease diagnosis in body cavities

Abstract

Cancer growths found in body cavities, such as colon, are a leading cause of death all over world. Medical intra cavity inspection techniques facilitate the diagnosis of cancers and other diseases, found in the different body cavities, such as nasal cavity, esophagus, colon, bladder, rectum etc. The cancer in the colorectal region of the body, which represents one of the most common malignant tumors, has become the second leading cause of death around the world, requiring urgent attention for its diagnosis and follow-up treatment. Also, to optimize patient management, precise detection or exclusion of metastases as well as assessment of their number and extent is indispensable. As colon cancer is highly curable if detected at a very early stage, diagnostic procedures based on early detection of the same is having important relevance. This early stage of cancer development is indicated by the presence of polyps of very small size (≈ mm) originating from the inner mucosal layer of the colon wall. The diagnostic techniques, which can identify small abnormalities such as polyp growth present at either the surface or subsurface of the mucosal layer, will be of much help in the early detection of cancer. The currently available methods for colon cancer diagnosis are still at the research and development stages within the context of early detection capability. The relevance and potential of the proposed research comes in this context. To ensure a complete and reliable diagnosis of the colon cancer, a multi-modality endoscope named as "ENDO-SPECKLE-FLUOROSCOPE", is proposed in this thesis, which operates