Development of a Flexible Infrared Imaging Endoscope

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Advanced Medical Electronics (AME) proposes to develop a flexible infrared microbolometer based endoscope for use during surgical heat treatments to accurately measure tissue temperatures. The primary phase II goal is to create the smallest far-infrared camera ever developed to provide real-time spatially accurate two-dimensional surface temperature measurements from the distal tip of an endoscope. The proposed flexible endoscope will be used for both visual thermal imaging in the abdomen during percutaneous thermal treatment of cancer tumors with minimal invasiveness and for endoscopic thermal treatment of surface tissue diseases (i.e. esophageal varices). New medical technologies involving for example concentrated RF energy, can effectively treat tumors and surface tissue diseases. These techniques require a very accurate measure of adjacent surface tissue temperatures for safe and effective application. The proposed system uses a newly available infrared (IR) sensing technology called a microbolometer coupled with a state-of-the-art packaging technique to make these required measurements at the tip of an endoscope and present the information to a surgeon in real-time using a false color display.