A smart fiber optic sensor for in vivo tissue optical spectroscopy

描述（由申请人提供）：癌症，如口腔癌和宫颈癌，是一个日益严重的全球健康问题，对发展中国家造成了不成比例的影响。每年，全世界诊断出超过481,000例口腔癌新病例，5年死亡率约为50%，其中近三分之二发生在发展中国家。子宫颈癌是妇女中第二大常见癌症，发病率和死亡率分别为每10万名妇女16人和9人，80%的病例发生在发展中国家。发展中国家的高死亡率很大程度上是由于这些国家没有适当的基础设施和资源来支持有组织的筛查和诊断项目，而这些项目在美国是可用的。上皮组织的光吸收和散射特性反映了它们潜在的生理和形态特性。光谱学，特别是漫反射光谱学，可以用来无创地量化这些组织特性，并被我们的团队以及其他人用于诊断宫颈和口腔的早期癌前病变。这项建议的长期目标是开发一种便携、易于使用、低成本、准确可靠的光学设备，可以帮助在早期阶段筛查和诊断口腔癌和宫颈癌，并且非常适合在资源匮乏的环境中使用。本研究的目的是开发一种便携式、低功耗、智能光纤传感器，并建立其在模拟组织幻影和健康口腔组织上的性能指标。该目标将通过使用最先进的光子学组件，如led和USB光谱仪，以及创新的智能光纤探头来实现。智能探针将集成到单个光纤探针中，用于组织光谱学的样品通道，用于实时仪器校准的自校准通道，以及用于控制探针-组织界面探针压力的干涉压力传感器。提出的工作的具体目标是：(1)设计和构建智能传感器系统，用于在体内对上皮组织进行可见漫反射光谱分析；(2)验证智能传感器系统在提取组织模态光学特性和在压力测试室内测量压力方面的准确性；(3)评估探针压力对被测组织参数的影响，以及智能传感器对健康志愿者探针压力的控制程度。本研究目标的成功完成将产生一种紧凑的智能光纤传感器系统，该系统将被证明能够获得准确、可重复和定量的组织吸收和散射测量，与全球宫颈癌和口腔癌健康筛查的应用相比。未来的研究工作将侧重于在资源贫乏的环境中部署这种技术来测试早期筛查策略。与PI合作的Ramanujam博士获得了杜克全球健康基金的资助，用于对海地怀疑患有宫颈癌的患者进行光谱学研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cancer, such as oral and cervical cancer, is a growing global health problem that disproportionately impacts the developing world. Each year, over 481,000 new cases of oral cancer are diagnosed worldwide, with a 5- year mortality of ~50% and nearly two-thirds of which occurs in developing world. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women with an incidence and death rate of 16 and 9 per 100,000 women, respectively, and 80% of cases occur in the developing world. The high death rate in developing countries is largely due to the fact that these countries do not have the appropriate infrastructure and resources to support the organized screening and diagnostic programs that are available in the U.S. The optical absorption and scattering properties of epithelial tissues reflect their underlying physiological and morphological properties. Optical spectroscopy, particularly diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, can be used to noninvasively quantify these tissue properties and has shown promise for diagnosis of early precancerous changes in the cervix and oral cavity by our group as well as others. The long term objective of this proposal is to develop a portable, easy-to-use and low cost, yet accurate and reliable optical device that can aid in the screening and diagnosis of oral and cervical cancer at an early stage and that is well suited for use in a low-resource setting. The objective of the proposed research is to develop a portable, low-power consumption, smart fiber-optic sensor and to establish its performance metrics on tissue-mimicking phantoms and healthy oral tissues. The goals will be achieved by the use of state-of-the-art photonics components, such as LEDs and USB spectrometers, and an innovative smart fiber-optic probe. The smart probe will integrate into a single fiber-optic probe a sample channel for tissue optical spectroscopy, a self-calibration channel for real-time instrument calibration, and an interferometric pressure sensor for the control of the probe pressure at the probe-to-tissue interface. The specific aims of the proposed work are: (1) design and construction of the smart sensor system for performing visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy of epithelial tissues in vivo; (2) verification of the accuracy of the smart sensor system in extraction of optical properties on tissue phantoms and in measuring pressure in a pressure test chamber; and (3) an evaluation of the effects of probe pressure on the measured tissue parameters and how well the probe pressure can be controlled with the smart sensor in healthy volunteers. Successful completion of the objectives of this research will result in a compact smart fiber-optic sensor system which will be demonstrated to obtain accurate, reproducible and quantitative measurements of tissue absorption and scattering contrast with applications to global health screening of cervical and oral cancers. Future research efforts will focus on deploying this technology for testing early screening strategies in resource poor environments. Dr. Ramanujam with whom the PI collaborates has a Duke Global health grant to initiate optical spectroscopy studies on patients suspected to have cervical cancer in Haiti. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The goal of this R03 proposal is to develop a portable, low power-consumption, and low-cost smart fiber-optic sensor device that can be used to obtain accurate, reproducible and quantitative measurements of absorption and scattering contrast of intact tissues with applications to global health screening of cervical and oral cancers. The proposed research is significantly relevant to public health due to the potential to contribute to the improvement of screening oral and cervical cancer, and thus the reduction of mortality rate worldwide.