Abstract

Colorectal carcinoma is the second leading cause of death by cancer in the United States, This disease is curable if premalignant tissue, called dysplasia, is detected and removed during colonoscopy. Conventional white-light endoscopy by itself is inadequate for detecting and localizing these lesions. As a result we have developed, an endoscopic imaging system that collects and processes laser-induced-fluorescence (LIF) images to assist in the biopsy of colonic dysplasia. A custom-made UV module designed for clinical use consists of a quartz fiber coupled to a microlens for illumination and a coherent fiber-optic bundle for image collection. This device is inserted into one port on a dual-biopsy-channel CCD colonoscope; this allows for tissue resection to occur through the other port. In the system (shown in Fig. 1) an argonion laser delivers UV light through the module onto the tissue, and the LIF emission is captured by an intensified CID camera. Color images of the white-light-illuminated tissue are videotaped through the colonoscope for comparison.

© 1995 Optical Society of America