Lo WCY, Uribe-Patarroyo N, Hoebel K, Nam AS, Villiger M, Nishioka N, Vakoc B, Bouma B.
Microscopic image guidance: real-time radiofrequency ablation monitoring for Barrett's esophagus (SIR 2017 Medical Student Scholar). Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology [Internet]. 2017;28 (2) :S199–S200.
Publisher's VersionAbstract
Purpose: The term “image-guided therapy” has traditionally been confined to predominantly macroscopic imaging modalities (e.g., CT, MR, and US), which offer resolution on the order of mm, for guiding therapeutic interventions. Here, we introduce the concept of microscopic image guidance for real-time thermal therapy monitoring in epithelial lesions using optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI), which offers high-speed, high-resolution (10 mm) imaging in 3D. Our earlier clinical studies using our OFDI balloon catheters have shown promise in Barrett’s esophagus (BE) screening. This study aims to develop a versatile, OFDI-based thermal therapy monitoring platform to precisely target epithelial lesions, such as BE with dysplasia.
Materials: We developed a microscopic thermal therapy guidance platform that integrates a flexible bipolar radiofrequency ablation (RFA) electrode array around the clinical balloon OFDI catheter. Imaging was performed between consecutive electrodes in porcine esophagus ex vivo. We developed a therapy monitoring technique based on complex differential variance (CDV) that enables the direct, noninvasive visualization of the coagulation zone at high spatial resolution using real-time, dynamic fluctuations in the OFDI signals. This is contrary to conventional, temperaturebased RFA monitoring techniques, which are often invasive and only provide an indirect measure of tissue injury, or emerging techniques (e.g., MR and US thermometry) limited by spatial resolution.
Results: We demonstrated real-time, direct, label-free visualization of the coagulation process during RFA ablation at high-resolution using our integrated RFA therapy delivery and OFDI balloon catheter-based guidance system. Our histological analysis using nitroblue tetrazolium chloride (NBTC) frozen sections confirmed that the CDV-based technique accurately and directly delineates the thermal coagulation zone in porcine esophagus ex vivo.
Conclusions: The ability to delineate thermal lesions at high resolution opens up the possibility of performing microscopic image-guided procedures in numerous clinical applications, especially in epithelial lesions where the precise delivery of thermal energy is critical.
Lo WCY, Uribe-Patarroyo N, Nam AS, Villiger M, Vakoc B, Bouma BE.
Laser thermal therapy monitoring using complex differential variance in optical coherence tomography (Featured in Jan 2017 issue). Journal of Biophotonics [Internet]. 2017;10 (1) :84-91.
Publisher's VersionAbstract
Conventional thermal therapy monitoring techniques based on temperature are often invasive, limited by point sampling, and are indirect measures of tissue injury, while techniques such as magnetic resonance and ultrasound thermometry are limited by their spatial resolution. The visualization of the thermal coagulation zone at high spatial resolution is particularly critical to the precise delivery of thermal energy to epithelial lesions. In this work, an integrated thulium laser thermal therapy monitoring system was developed based on complex differential variance (CDV), which enables the 2D visualization of the dynamics of the thermal coagulation process at high spatial and temporal resolution with an optical frequency domain imaging system. With proper calibration to correct for noise, the CDV-based technique was shown to accurately delineate the thermal coagulation zone, which is marked by the transition from high CDV upon heating to a significantly reduced CDV once the tissue is coagulated, in 3 different tissue types ex vivo: skin, retina, and esophagus. The ability to delineate thermal lesions in multiple tissue types at high resolution opens up the possibility of performing microscopic image-guided procedures in a vast array of epithelial applications ranging from dermatology, ophthalmology, to gastroenterology and beyond.
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