TheUltimateHighresolutionEndoscope IsasThinasaHumanHair

WrittenbyAlexiaSeverson|Publishedon18March2013

Engineers have created a tiny endoscope with an image resolution four times better thananypreviousdevice.

Engineers are always finding ways to make devices smaller and more efficient, and medical technology is no exception. Accordingtoanewstudypublishedinthejournal Optics Express, Stanford University engineers have created a highresolution endoscope as thin as ahuman hair with a resolution four times betterthan previous devicesofsimilardesign. Surgeons typically use endoscopes to look inside a body cavity or organ through a natural opening, such as the mouth during a bronchoscopy. This microendoscope sets anewstandardforhighresolution,minimallyinvasive bioimagingandcouldlead to new methods for studying the brain and detecting cancer, in addition to making routinecolonoscopieslessofapain. According to a Stanford press release, the prototype can resolve objects about 2.5 microns insize,andaresolutionof0.3micronsiseasilywithinreach. A micron isone thousandth of a millimeter. By comparison, today's highresolution endoscopes can resolve objects only to about 10 microns. The naked eye can see objects down to about125microns. I'd say the main thing distinguishing our endoscope from other endoscopes is that we achieve microscopic resolution, said lead author Joseph Kahn, a professor of electrical engineering at the Stanford School of Engineering, in an interview with Healthline. It can be used to look at very small features, such as cells, inside the body, and may [eliminate] the need to remove cellsusingabiopsyneedleandlookat

themunderaconventionalmicroscope. TheOriginofanIdea Kahn began studying endoscopic technology two years ago with fellow Stanford electricalengineerOlavSolgaard. "Olav wanted to know ifit would it be possible to send lightthroughasingle,hairthin fiber, form a bright spotinside thebody,andscanit torecord imagesoflivingtissue," Kahnsaidinapressrelease. But figuring out how to create a tiny, highresolution scopewasn'teasy. The team's first challenge was that of multimode fibers, through which light travels via many differentpaths,knownasmodes. While light is very goodat conveyingcomplex information through such fibers, itcan get scrambled beyond recognition along the way.So, Kahnandhisgraduatestudent, Reza Nasiri Mahalati,usedaspeciallightmodulator,or miniatureliquidcrystaldisplay (LCD),tounscramblethelight. Mahalati's breakthrough solution was based on the seminal work in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) done by another Stanford electrical engineer, John Pauly, whohadusedrandomsamplingtodramaticallyspeedupimagerecordinginMRIs. "Mahalati said, 'Why not use random patterns of light to speed up imaging through multimode fiber?' and that was it. We were on our way," Kahn said. "The recordsettingmicroendoscopewasborn." AWorkingPrototype While Kahn andhis colleagues have managed to create a working prototype of their ultrathin endoscope, at the moment, the fiber must remain rigid. Becausebendinga multimode fiber scrambles theimage,thefibermustbeplacedinsideathinneedleto keepitstraightwhileit'sinsertedintothebody. Rigid endoscopes are common in many surgeries, but they often require relatively thick, rodshaped lenses to yield clear images. Flexible endoscopes, on the other handthe kind used in colonoscopiesare usually made up of bundles of tens of

thousands of fibers, each relaying a single pixel of the image. Both types of endoscopesarelargerandlesssensitivethanKahn'smodel. Though he'sexcitedabouthisnextgenerationtechnology,Kahnsaidhedoesntknow howlongitwillbeuntilthemicroendoscopereachestheO.R. I think the technology could be developed into a fieldready form within a couple of years, so it probably couldbeusedinresearchin that timeframe,hesaid.Ihaveno ideahowlongitwouldtaketogetapprovaltouseitinhumanclinicalapplications. LearnMore:

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