All-Optical Pulse-Echo Ultrasound Imaging for Real-Time Guidance of Minimally Invasive Procedures

医用针是广泛的诊断和治疗干预的核心，包括治疗心律问题的心脏微创手术和治疗背痛的神经阻滞。准确和有效地到达体内的组织目标可能非常具有挑战性。许多针插入是用体外的超声或X射线成像系统进行的。然而，这些成像系统通常不足以直接检测组织目标，因此存在不准确的针放置的风险。作为UCL医学物理和生物医学工程系的讲师和高级研究员，我将领导一个雄心勃勃的研究计划，开发新的成像探头，以可视化人体组织。这些成像探头将集成到医疗针头和导管中，以可视化医疗器械周围的组织。成像探头的一个新颖方面是它们将通过光纤传输和接收超声波。这种用于执行超声成像的全光学方法将导致具有低成本组件和可扩展制造工艺的高性能成像。因此，它们可以在临床手术期间提供组织的可视化，这是当前技术不可能的，或者太昂贵而不能常规使用。患者将直接受益于改善的临床结局和降低的并发症风险。

Medical needles are central to a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, including minimally invasive procedures in the heart to treat rhythm problems, and nerve blocks to treat back pain. Accurately and efficiently reaching tissue targets within the body can be very challenging. Many needle insertions are performed with ultrasound or X-ray imaging systems that are exterior to the body. These imaging systems are often insufficient for directly detecting the tissue targets, however, and consequently there is a risk of inaccurate needle placement. As a Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at UCL, I will lead an ambitious research programme to develop new imaging probes to visualise tissue in the human body. These imaging probes will be integrated into medical needles and catheters to visualise tissue surrounding the medical devices. One of the novel aspects of the imaging probes is that they will transmit and receive ultrasound with optical fibres. This all-optical method for performing ultrasound imaging will lead to high-performance imaging with low-cost components and scalable manufacturing processes. As such, they could provide visualisation of tissue during clinical procedures that is not possible with current technology, or which is too expensive to be used routinely. Patients will benefit directly with improved clinical outcomes and decreased risks of complications.