Ballistic and snake photon imaging for locating optical endomicroscopy fibres

M G Tanner; T R Choudhary; T H Craven; B Mills; M Bradley; R K Henderson; K Dhaliwal; R R Thomson

doi:10.1364/BOE.8.004077

Ballistic and snake photon imaging for locating optical endomicroscopy fibres

Biomed Opt Express. 2017 Aug 14;8(9):4077-4095. doi: 10.1364/BOE.8.004077. eCollection 2017 Sep 1.

Authors

M G Tanner^{1

2}, T R Choudhary^{2

3}, T H Craven², B Mills², M Bradley^{2

4}, R K Henderson⁵, K Dhaliwal², R R Thomson^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA), Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK.
² EPSRC IRC Hub, MRC Centre for Inflammation Research, Queen's Medical Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh UK.
³ Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK.
⁴ School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
⁵ Institute for Integrated Micro and Nano Systems, School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FF, UK.

Abstract

We demonstrate determination of the location of the distal-end of a fibre-optic device deep in tissue through the imaging of ballistic and snake photons using a time resolved single-photon detector array. The fibre was imaged with centimetre resolution, within clinically relevant settings and models. This technique can overcome the limitations imposed by tissue scattering in optically determining the in vivo location of fibre-optic medical instruments.

Keywords: (030.5260) Photon counting; (110.0113) Imaging through turbid media; (170.1610) Clinical applications; (170.3660) Light propagation in tissues; (170.3880) Medical and biological imaging; (170.6920) Time-resolved imaging.