Multimodal in vivo imaging of oral cancer using fluorescence lifetime, photoacoustic and ultrasound techniques

Abstract

This work reports a multimodal system for label-free tissue diagnosis combining fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIm), ultrasound backscatter microscopy (UBM), and photoacoustic imaging (PAI). This system provides complementary biochemical, structural and functional features allowing for enhanced in vivo detection of oral carcinoma. Results from a hamster oral carcinoma model (normal, precancer and carcinoma) are presented demonstrating the ability of FLIm to delineate biochemical composition at the tissue surface, UBM and related radiofrequency parameters to identify disruptions in the tissue microarchitecture and PAI to map optical absorption associated with specific tissue morphology and physiology. ©2013 Optical Society of America

Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy and ultrasound backscatter microscopy for nondestructive evaluation of vascular grafts

“…UBM data were analyzed as described in our previous work. 7 Histologic sections (formalin fixed) were obtained from regions of the sample with and without grafts and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (for visualization of morphology), Verhoeff van Gieson (VVG, for the visualizing elastic fibers), and Masson's trichrome (for visualizing the collagen content in intima/media layers).…”

Noninvasive structural and microvascular anatomy of oral mucosae using handheld optical coherence tomography

“…Currently, different optical imaging methods have been proposed to diagnose oral premalignant/malignant lesions because of their high-resolution and noninvasive natures, such as harmonic [9], multiphoton [10,11], confocal [12,13], photoacoustic [14] microscopies, as well as optical coherence tomography (OCT) [15,16]. For oral cavity imaging with microscopic techniques including harmonic, multiphoton, and confocal microscopies, the penetration depth is limited to hundreds micrometers, which may not be deep enough to investigate the existence of abnormal cells in the premalignant or malignant stage.…”

Development of a multimodal foveated endomicroscope for the detection of oral cancer

“…In an effort to overcome the limitations of COE and autofluorescence imaging, several modalities have been explored including nonlinear microscopy [16,17], Raman spectroscopy [18,19], fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) [20,21], optical coherence tomography [22,23], spectroscopy with point spectrometers [24,25], multispectral imaging [26,27] and confocal microscopy [20,28]. While each of these methods delivers valuable information to aid in the diagnosis of oral cancer, studies have suggested that a combination of these techniques could improve performance [5,7,21,27].…”

“…While each of these methods delivers valuable information to aid in the diagnosis of oral cancer, studies have suggested that a combination of these techniques could improve performance [5,7,21,27]. For example, a pilot study with multispectral imaging demonstrated the advantages of combining spectral and spatial data acquisition over the entire oral cavity [27].…”