Non-Invasive Optical Tissue Imaging

Lead Inventor: Dr. Elizabeth Hillman Ph.D.

STV Reference: IR 2155, IR 2170, IR 2179, IR 2294, IR 2410


No-Contact Optical Imaging Currently Low Resolution:
Non-contact optical tomography of superficial tissues has the potential to find widespread use in medical diagnostics, surgical guidance and in-situ monitoring. No other technology can provide the same combination of information that it can supply. Existing systems that can acquire equivalent data suffer from limitations such as excessive cost, slow imaging speeds and lower low resolution, or a combination of the three. These limitations have resulted in the limited widespread deployment of the technology, preventing the capabilities of non-contact optical tomography of superficial tissues from benefiting the population at large.


Non-Contact Optical Tomography with High Resolution:
Laminar optical tomography (LOT) is a technique which allows non-contact depth-resolved optical imaging of living tissues to depths of >2 mm with 100-200 micron resolution. LOT allows the simultaneous quantification of absorption (and hence oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin dynamics in living tissue) and fluorescence (such as that from dyes, probes, or intrinsic fluorophores). The combination of this instrumentation with Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy allows parallel imaging of particulate flow (e.g. blood flow). Data is acquired via an articulating arm with three axes of rotation, allows LOT imaging of any external surface of the body. The articulating arm LOT system is a highly versatile and relatively inexpensive new medical imaging modality with particular suitability to clinical imaging applications.


Applications:
• Clinical imaging (diagnostic/evaluative, treatment response)
o Cancers, burns, wounds, ulcers
o Internal tissues (oral mucosa, cervix, colon, esophagus)
o Opthalmic blood flow dynamics e.g. in glaucoma
o Intrasurgical evaluation of organ perfusion
• Research imaging
o Studying exposed animal brain
o Evaluation of metabolic oxygen consumption
o Evaluation of tumor perfusion and treatment response
• Non-medical imaging
• Measurement of sub-surface fluid flow


Advantages:
• Imaging at high frame-rate
• Can image up to depths greater than 2 mm
• 100-200 micron resolution
• Multi-wavelength imaging of absorption, fluorescence and flow contrast
• Imaging and simultaneous measurements of living dynamic systems
• Can generate 3D (depth-resolved) images of surveyed region



Patent Status: Patent Pending (WO/2009/005748) ~ see link below.

Licensing Status: Available for Licensing and Sponsored Research Support

Publications: Implementation:
• Yuan B, Burgess SA, Iranmahboob AK, Bouchard MB, Lehrer N, Bordier C, Hillman E. M. C, ""A System for rapid, simultaneous, high resolution, depth-resolved fluorescence and absorption optical imaging"", Rev. Sci. Instrum. 80, 043706 (2009).
• Hillman E. M. C, Burgess S.A. ""Sub-millimeter resolution 3D optical imaging of living tissue using Laminar Optical Tomography"", Laser & Photonics Reviews, 3 (1-2), 159-180, (2009).
• Burgess S. A, Bouchard M. B, Yuan B, Hillman E. M. C. ""Simultaneous Multi-Wavelength Laminar Optical Tomography"", Optics Letters, 33 (22), 2710-2712, (2008).
• Hillman, E. M. C, Boas, D. A, Dale, A. M, Dunn, A. K, ""Laminar Optical Tomography: demonstration of millimeter-scale depth-resolved imaging in turbid media"" Optics Letters, 29, (14), 1650-1652 (2004).

Applications:
• Hillman E. M. C, Bernus O, Pease E, Bouchard M. B. Pertsov A. ""Depth-resolved optical imaging of transmural electrical propagation in perfused heart"", Optics Express, 15 (26), 17827-17841, 2007.
• Hillman E. M. C, Devor A, Bouchard M. B, Dunn A. K, Krauss GW, Skoch J, Bacskai J, Dale A. M, Boas D. A. ""Depth-resolved Optical Imaging and Microscopy of Vascular Compartment Dynamics During Somatosensory Stimulation"", NeuroImage, 35(1): 89-104 (2007)