Hand-held confocal microscope for clinical/surgical use

描述（申请人提供）：实时行扫描设计 近红外手持式共焦显微镜提出，用于检查 在两种情况下的组织病理学：体内组织（用于临床筛选和 诊断）和手术中暴露的组织（以检测癌小叶 包括癌组织与正常组织的边缘）。在第一阶段，原型将 针对涵盖以下两个应用程序的规范进行构建和测试： （100-500微米）在高（1-5微米）下对核和细胞细节成像 分辨率和表面（10-100微米）成像的癌症小叶， 中等（5-10微米）分辨率。将测试成像性能 在皮肤内，并包括共焦图像与组织学的比较。第一 应用是皮肤病/癌症（皮肤科），但其他组织将 后来也被拍了照。在第二阶段，原型将被包装成一个 强大的，用户友好的，廉价的手持式共聚焦显微镜，并部署 在几家医院进行临床和手术研究。共焦成像 有可能发展成为一种非侵入性的病理检查方法， in vivo.预期用户为内科医生和外科医生， 对患者的好处是：无痛（无活检或疤痕），快速， 价格昂贵，因此大大改善了医疗保健。 拟议的商业应用： 手持式共聚焦显微镜将由初级保健医生、皮肤科医生和耳鼻喉科医生等专家、所有专业的外科医生及其支持人员使用。当连接到全球远程病理学网络时，共聚焦图像将由病理学家管理。这项与远程医疗相关的技术将以1万至2万美元的价格服务于包括发展中国家和欠发达国家在内的全球市场。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Design of a real-time line-scanning near-infrared hand-held confocal microscope is proposed, for the examination of histopathology in two situations: tissue in vivo (for clinical screening and diagnostics) and intra-surgically exposed tissue (to detect cancer lobules including cancer-to-normal tissue margins). In Phase I, a prototype will be built and tested for specifications that will cover the two applications: deep (100-500 microns) imaging of nuclear and cellular detail at high (1-5 microns) resolution, and superficial (10-100 microns) imaging of cancer lobules at moderate (5-10 microns) resolution. The imaging performance will be tested within skin, and include comparison of confocal images to histology. The first application is for skin disease/cancer (dermatology) but other tissues will be subsequently imaged as well. hi Phase Ii, the prototype will be packaged into a robust, user-friendly, inexpensive hand-held confocal microscope, and deployed at several hospitals for clinical and intra-surgical studies. Confocal imaging can potentially develop into a noninvasive method for examination of pathology in vivo. The intended users are physicians and surgeons, and the potential benefits to the patient are: painless (no biopsy or scarring), fast, less expensive and therefore significantly improved healthcare. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: The hand-held confocal microscope will be used by primary care physicians, specialists such as dermatologists and otolaryngologists, surgeons in all specialties, and their supporting staff. When linked into a global telepathology network, the confocal images will be managed by pathologists. At a price of $10-20K, this technology linked with telemedicine will serve a world-wide market including developing and under-developed countries.