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)经历了从最初的快速发展到一种通用的非侵入性高分辨率光学成像方法。广泛的医学诊断应用已被探索在眼科、心脏病学和一般的早期癌症诊断中。初步研究表明，OCT在类似于随机活检的点抽样方案中使用时，可以促进对各种疾病的准确诊断。然而，具有最大影响的潜在诊断应用需要对大组织体积进行筛查或监测。因此，当前OCT技术相对较慢的图像采集速度是其作为一种强大的临床工具的实用的一个重大障碍。由于目前的技术通常在其有效光收集的理论极限下运行，成像速度的显著提高只能通过技术范式的转变来实现。我们建议开发一种新的OCT并行检测原理，其效率比当前最先进的技术高数百倍，并提供极大地提高图像采集速度和分辨率。拟议技术的系统设计是为三个高影响力的临床目标量身定做的：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受攻击的冠状动脉斑块，以及全面监测Barrett‘s食道患者的食道肿瘤。将使用在这项工作中开发的技术进行三项临床试点研究，以测试与实现这些目标相关的系统性能。

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.