Detection and Diagnosis of Oral Neoplasia with an Optical Coherence Microscope

摘要

Optical coherence microscopy (0CM) is a new optical imaging technology that can provide detailed images of tissue architecture and cellular morphology of living tissue. The technique combines the sub-cellular resolution of high numerical aperture (NA) confocal microscopy with the increased sensitivity and penetration depth of optical coherence tomography (OCT) to acquire detail similar to that available in histologic tissue evaluation, except that images can be achieved non-invasively and without the need for fixation and histochemical staining. 0CM images have been acquired from biological structures with a resolution of 2 microns with a 200-500 micron field of view at a penetration depth of 600 microns in plant specimens and in vitro human colon tissue. Thus, 0CM provides the potential to image epithelial tissue with the subcellular resolution needed to assess the pathologic state of tissue. The goal of this study was to characterize the features of normal and neoplastic oral mucosa using 0CM and to compare these to the image features available with confocal microscopy. The authors report the results of a pilot study using both a confocal microscopy and an 0CM system to image pairs of clinically normal and abnormal biopsies obtained from 12 patients. The findings show that, like confocal microscopy, 0CM can image oral mucosa with a resolution comparable to histology without the need for tissue fixation, sectioning, or staining. In addition to subcellular resolution, the 0CM demonstrated consistently deeper penetration depths than achieved by the confocal arm of the system. Analysis of epithelial scattering coefficients clearly discerns a difference between the hyperkeratotic layers and the non-keratinized epithelium below and an increase in scattering associated with premalignancy. (2 tables, 7 figures, 41 refs.).