Fast OCT technology for comprehensive diagnostic imaging

描述（由申请人提供）： 在过去的10年里，光学相干层析成像（OCT）经历了一个快速的发展，从一开始的非侵入性的高分辨率光学成像的通用方法。在眼科、心脏病学和一般的早期癌症诊断中，已经探索了广泛的医学诊断应用。初步研究表明，OCT在类似于随机活检的点采样方案中使用时，可以促进各种疾病的准确诊断。然而，具有最高影响的潜在诊断应用需要对大组织体积进行筛选或监测。因此，当前OCT技术的相对较慢的图像采集速率代表了其作为强大的临床工具的实用性的显著障碍。由于目前的技术通常在其有效光收集的理论极限下运行，因此成像速度的显著提高只能通过技术范式转变来实现。我们建议开发一种新的，并行检测的OCT的原则，是几百倍的效率比目前最先进的技术，并提供了大大提高图像采集速率和分辨率。所提出的技术的系统设计是针对三个高影响力的临床目标而量身定制的：青光眼的早期检测和监测，青光眼是美国第二大致盲原因，检测和表征导致急性心肌梗死的易损冠状动脉斑块，以及全面监测Barrett食管患者的食管肿瘤。三个临床试点研究，使用这项工作中开发的技术，将进行测试系统的性能相关实现这些目标。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Over the past 10 years, optical coherence tomography (OCT) has undergone a rapid development from inception to a versatile method for non-invasive high-resolution optical imaging. A wide range of medical diagnostic applications has been explored in ophthalmology, cardiology and in early cancer diagnosis in general. Preliminary studies have demonstrated that OCT can facilitate the accurate diagnosis of a variety of diseases when used in a point-sampling protocol analogous to random biopsy. The potential diagnostic applications having the highest impact, however, require screening or surveillance of large tissue volumes. The relatively slow image acquisition rate of current OCT technology therefore represents a significant barrier to its utility as a powerful clinical tool. Since the current technology commonly operates at its theoretical limit for efficient light collection, dramatic improvements in imaging speed can only be obtained through a technological paradigm shift. We propose to develop a new, parallel detection principle for OCT that is several hundred-fold more efficient than current state of the art technology and that provides vastly improved image acquisition rate and resolution. The system design of the proposed technology is tailored to three high-impact clinical goals: early detection and monitoring of glaucoma, the second-leading cause of blindness in the U.S, detection and characterization of vulnerable coronary plaques responsible for acute myocardial infarction, and comprehensive surveillance for esophageal neoplasia in patients with Barrett's esophagus. Three clinical pilot studies, using technology developed in this work, will be conducted to test system performance relevant to achieving these goals.