Terahertz imaging of human skin pathologies using laser feedback interferometry with quantum cascade lasers.
Terahertz imaging of human skin pathologies using laser feedback interferometry with quantum cascade lasers.
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DOI：
10.1364/boe.480615
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发表时间：
2023-04-01
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Rakic, Aleksandar D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Qi, Xiaoqiong;Bertling, Karl;Stark, Mitchell S.;Taimre, Thomas;Kao, Yung-Ching;Lim, Yah Leng;Han, She;O'Brien, Blake;Collins, Angus;Walsh, Michael;Torniainen, Jari;Gillespie, Timothy;Donose, Bogdan C.;Dean, Paul;Li, Lian He;Linfield, Edmund H.;Davies, A. Giles;Indjin, Dragan;Soyer, H. Peter;Rakic, Aleksandar D.
利用当前的临床诊断工具对皮肤病理的早期检测是具有挑战性的，特别是当皮肤上不存在可见的颜色变化或形态学线索时。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种太赫兹（THz）成像技术的基础上的窄带量子级联激光器（QCL）在2.8太赫兹的人体皮肤病理检测衍射有限的空间分辨率。对三组不同的未染色的人类皮肤样本（良性痣、发育不良痣和黑色素瘤）进行THz成像，并与相应的传统组织病理学染色图像进行比较。可以提供太赫兹对比度的脱水人类皮肤的最小厚度被确定为50 µm，这大约是所使用的太赫兹波的半波长。来自不同类型的50 μ m厚皮肤样本的THz图像与组织学结果具有良好的相关性。病理与健康皮肤的每样本位置可以从THz振幅-相位图中的对应像素的密度分布中分离。从这些脱水样品中分析了除了水含量之外与图像对比度起源有关的可能的太赫兹对比度机制。我们的研究结果表明，太赫兹成像可以提供一个可行的成像模式，皮肤癌检测是超越了可见的。
Early detection of skin pathologies with current clinical diagnostic tools is challenging, particularly when there are no visible colour changes or morphological cues present on the skin. In this study, we present a terahertz (THz) imaging technology based on a narrow band quantum cascade laser (QCL) at 2.8 THz for human skin pathology detection with diffraction limited spatial resolution. THz imaging was conducted for three different groups of unstained human skin samples (benign naevus, dysplastic naevus, and melanoma) and compared to the corresponding traditional histopathologic stained images. The minimum thickness of dehydrated human skin that can provide THz contrast was determined to be 50 µm, which is approximately one half-wavelength of the THz wave used. The THz images from different types of 50 µm-thick skin samples were well correlated with the histological findings. The per-sample locations of pathology vs healthy skin can be separated from the density distribution of the corresponding pixels in the THz amplitude–phase map. The possible THz contrast mechanisms relating to the origin of image contrast in addition to water content were analyzed from these dehydrated samples. Our findings suggest that THz imaging could provide a feasible imaging modality for skin cancer detection that is beyond the visible.