Micro Coherence Imaging Technology for Assessing Obstructive Lung Disease in vivo

描述(由申请人提供)：这项生物医学研究伙伴关系(BRP)提案涉及生物医学工程团队、肺生理团队和临床肺部医学团队之间的合作伙伴关系。这项研究计划将包括最先进的光学工程、先进的活体生理学评估以及直接应用于人类阻塞性肺疾病(OLD)。光学相干层析成像(OCT)是一种能够在体内、微米级分辨率和无电离辐射的情况下实时成像组织微结构的技术。由于现有方法的限制，这项技术还没有在任何与OLD相关的诊断或治疗场所使用。为了克服这些限制，我们的合作伙伴将开发和优化微型OCT成像探头和OCT成像系统。我们假设，高分辨率、高速的内窥镜OCT系统将能够识别和量化气道壁组织成分的关键变化 这将导致OLD，我们将在犬体内模型中证明这种内窥镜OCT平台的可行性并评估其分辨率。我们还假设，这项创新技术可以应用于人类肺部疾病，以阐明人类老年病的病因、疾病进展和治疗反应。我们将展示OCT在COPD和哮喘患者中的疗效。这项创新的BRP建议涉及最先进的光学工程、先进的活体生理评估以及直接应用于人类肺部疾病的工作伙伴关系。生物医学工程团队将在体内设计和制造两个波长的超薄高分辨率OCT扫描内窥镜系统，以准确评估周围小气道的气道壁厚度和精细结构。肺生理学团队将在小尺寸犬的呼吸道中确定OCT的体内分辨率的准确性。最后，临床肺部医学团队将确定气道壁结构元素与人类老年严重程度之间的相关性。这些工作确定了OLD的机制，并通过无创量化其对气道壁结构和肺功能的影响，使未来能够对新的和现有的治疗方法进行评估。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Biomedical Research Partnership (BRP) proposal involves a partnership among a biomedical engineering team, a pulmonary physiology team, and a clinical pulmonary medicine team. This research program will incorporate state of the art optical engineering, advanced in vivo physiologic evaluation, and direct application to human obstructive lung diseases (OLD). Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a technology capable of real time imaging of tissue microstructures in vivo, at micron scale resolution, and without ionizing radiation. Due to existing methodological limitations, this technology has not been utilized in any diagnostic or therapeutic venue related to OLD. To overcome these limitations, our partnership will develop and optimize a miniature OCT imaging probe and OCT imaging system. We hypothesize that high-resolution, high-speed, endoscopic OCT systems will allow identification and quantification of critical changes in tissue components in the airway wall that lead to OLD, and we will demonstrate the feasibility and evaluate the resolution of this endoscopic OCT platform in vivo in a canine model. We also hypothesize that this innovative technology can be applied to human lung disease to elucidate the etiology, progression of disease, and response to therapy in humans with OLD. We will demonstrate the efficacy of OCT in subjects with COPD and asthma. This innovative BRP proposal involves a working partnership involving state of the art optical engineering, advanced in vivo physiologic evaluation, and direct application to human lung disease. The biomedical engineering team will design and fabricate an ultrathin high-resolution OCT scanning endoscope systems at two wavelengths with an optimal working distance for accurately assessing thickness and fine structures of the airway walls in the peripheral small airways in vivo. The pulmonary physiology team will determine the accuracy of OCT resolution in vivo in small size canine airways. Finally, the clinical pulmonary medicine team will determine the correlations between the structural elements in the airway wall and the severity of OLD in humans. These works determines the mechanisms of OLD and enable future evaluations of new and existing therapeutic treatments by noninvasively quantifying their effects on airway wall structures and lung function.