A fluorescence confocal microendoscope has been developed to provide high resolution, in-vivo imaging of cellular pathology. The microendoscope employs a fiber-optic imaging bundle, a miniature objective, and a miniature focusing mechanism to allow imaging in remote locations of the body. The system uses a 2mm diameter flexible catheter that is capped by a rigid opto-mechanical system measuring 3mm in diameter and 12mm in length. The small size of the confocal microendoscope was chosen so that it may be routed through the therapeutic channel of a clinical endoscope, adding microscopic functionality to conventional endoscopy procedures. The confocal nature of the microendoscope provides optical sectioning with 2 micron lateral resolution and 25 micron axial resolution. The pneumatic focusing mechanism located in the distal opto-mechanical assembly allows for imaging to a maximum depth of 200 micron in the tissue. The system is capable of providing conventional grayscale fluorescence images at 10 frames-per-second as well as spatially resolved multi-spectral fluorescence images at several seconds a frame. Preliminary in-vivo results are be presented.
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