open access: Integrated optical coherence tomography, ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging for ovarian tissue characterizationIntegrated optical coherence tomography, ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging for ovarian tissue characterization

"....Detection before the malignancy spreads or at the early stage would greatly improve the survival and benefit patient health. In this report, we present an integrated optical coherence tomography (OCT), ultrasound (US) and photoacoustic imaging (PAI) prototype endoscopy system for ovarian tissue characterization."

"Combining OCT, US and PAI would further provide complementary tissue optical absorption, scattering information, and deep tissue structures. Previously, Yang et al. developed a photoacoustic endoscopy [24]; Yin et al. reported an integrated intravascular OCT and ultrasound imaging probe [25,26]; Wang et al. demonstrated an ultrasound guided spectroscopic intravascular photoacoustic imaging system [27]; Li et al. [28] and Jiao et al. [29] both introduced the integrated OCT and photoacoustic microscopy. For the above referenced studies, either one or two imaging modalities were investigated, although some were not suitable for endoscopy applications. This study, to the best of our knowledge, reports the first prototype system that integrates OCT, US and PAI modalities for endoscopy applications. The performance of the system in ovarian tissue characterization has been demonstrated using ex vivo porcine and human ovaries."

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Summary

"We have developed the first integrated OCT, US and PAI endoscopy imaging system prototype and explored its application in ovarian tissue characterization. The absorption information provided by PAI, the high-resolution subsurface morphological image provided by OCT and the deeper tissue structures imaged by US demonstrate the great synergy of the combined endoscopy over each modality alone. The initial results have shown that the hybrid device has a potential in ovarian cancer detection and characterization."