Revolutionary Three-in-One Endoscope Detects Ovarian Cancer Early
Industry: In the medical field, early detection of ovarian cancer is crucial due to its high mortality rate, largely because it often metastasizes before symptoms appear. Current screening methods are limited, prompting the need for innovative diagnostic tools.
Challenge: Ovarian cancer is challenging to detect early due to the lack of effective screening techniques and the tendency of the disease to spread before symptoms become evident. Existing preventive measures, such as prophylactic oophorectomy, are not ideal as they can increase mortality and have significant side effects.
How the GaGe Digitizer was used: The study utilized a GaGe Applied Technologies digitizer model Cs8325 with a 50 MHz sampling rate to acquire data from the Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) system. This digitizer played a crucial role in capturing high-resolution imaging data, which was essential for generating detailed OCT images of ovarian tissue.
Extraordinary Aspects of the Paper: The paper introduces a novel endoscopic system that combines three imaging techniques: Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), Photoacoustic Imaging (PAI), and Pulse-Echo Ultrasound (US). This multi-modal approach provides comprehensive tissue analysis, including optical absorption, scattering, and deep tissue structure, enhancing the accuracy of ovarian cancer detection.
Equipment & Sensors Used:
GaGe Digitizer: Model Cs8325, 50 MHz, used for OCT data acquisition.
OCT System: Uses a 110 nm bandwidth swept source (HSL-2000; Santec Corp.) with a center wavelength of 1310 nm.
PAI System: Includes a Ti laser (Symphotic TII LS-2134) with a tunable wavelength range of 700–950 nm and a Nd laser (Symphotic TII LS-2122) for pumping.
Ultrasound System: Features a high-frequency, unfocused transducer with a 35 MHz center frequency and a Panametrics 5900PR receiver (Olympus NDT Corp.).
Custom Sensors: A multimode fiber and high-frequency transducer were adapted to fit into a compact probe, designed for integrating OCT, PAI, and US modalities into a single device.