Spectroscopic tissue analysis apparatus and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10234443-B2
Application number	US-201815911005-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 2, 2018
Priority date	Mar 3, 2017
Publication date	Mar 19, 2019
Grant date	Mar 19, 2019

Abstract

An apparatus for spectroscopic tissue analysis is disclosed. The apparatus comprises: a light delivery system configured to direct an excitation signal on to a tissue sample; a light collection system configured to collect a backscattered signal comprising diffuse reflectance photons backscattered by the tissue sample; an imaging device; a spectrometer; an optical adaptor configured to direct a first portion of the backscattered signal to the imaging device and a second portion of the backscattered signal to the spectrometer; and an analysis system configured to apply polar decomposition to spectral image data of the tissue captured by the imaging device and the spectrometer and thereby derive polarization metrics for the tissue sample.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus for spectroscopic tissue analysis, the apparatus comprising:
a light delivery system configured to direct an excitation signal on to a tissue sample;
a light collection system configured to collect a backscattered signal comprising diffuse reflectance photons backscattered by the tissue sample;
an imaging device;
a spectrometer;
an optical adaptor configured to direct a first portion of the backscattered signal to the imaging device and a second portion of the backscattered signal to the spectrometer; and
an analysis system configured to apply polar decomposition to spectral image data of the tissue captured by the imaging device and the spectrometer, by expressing a Mueller matrix as a product of three matrices, the three matrices being a diattenuation matrix, a depolarization matrix and a retardance matrix, and thereby derive polarization metrics for the tissue sample.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the analysis system is configured to use the polarization metrics to characterize the tissue.

3. An apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the analysis system is configured to identify cancerous tissue.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the derived polarization metrics comprise depolarization; and/or diattenuation and/or retardance.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the tissue sample comprises colonic tissue.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the backscattered signal is in the near infra-red frequency range.

7. An apparatus for spectroscopic tissue analysis, the apparatus comprising:
a light delivery system configured to direct an excitation signal on to a tissue sample;
a light collection system configured to collect a backscattered signal comprising diffuse reflectance photons backscattered by the tissue sample;
an imaging device;
a spectrometer;
an optical adaptor configured to direct a first portion of the backscattered signal to the imaging device and a second portion of the backscattered signal to the spectrometer; and
an analysis system configured to apply polar decomposition to spectral image data of tissue captured by the imaging device and the spectrometer and thereby derive polarization metrics for the tissue sample, wherein the analysis system is configured to use the polarization metrics to characterize the tissue by applying partial least squares discriminant analysis and leave-one tissue site-out, cross validation to the polarization metrics.

8. An apparatus for spectroscopic tissue analysis, the apparatus comprising:
a light delivery system configured to direct an excitation signal on to a tissue sample;
a light collection system configured to collect a backscattered signal comprising diffuse reflectance photons backscattered by the tissue sample;
an imaging device;
a spectrometer;
an optical adaptor configured to direct a first portion of the backscattered signal to the imaging device and a second portion of the backscattered signal to the spectrometer, wherein the optical adapter comprises a glass plate having portion coated with a mirror; and
an analysis system configured (o apply polar decomposition to spectral image data of the tissue captured by the imaging device and the spectrometer and thereby derive polarization metrics for the tissue sample.

9. An apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the optical adapter is configured such that the first portion of the backscattered signal is transmitted by the glass plate and the second portion of the backscattered signal is reflected by the mirror.

Assignees

• Nat Univ Singapore

Inventors

• Huang Zhiwei

Classifications

• G01N21/4738

  Diffuse reflection (precedence is given to G01N21/55 - G01N21/57 if specular component is taken into consideration), e.g. also for testing fluids, fibrous materials · CPC title

• G01N2021/4792

  Polarisation of scatter light · CPC title

• G01N21/47

  Scattering, i.e. diffuse reflection (G01N21/25, G01N21/41 take precedence {G01N21/55 takes precedence}) · CPC title

• G01N33/4833 Primary

  of solid biological material, e.g. tissue samples, cell cultures (tissue in vivo A61B5/00; cell suspensions G01N33/48735) · CPC title

• G01N2201/129

  Using chemometrical methods · CPC title