Title : Use of vibrational Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) to noninvasively evaluate the properties of tissues
Abstract:
Fibrosis is associated with 45% of all deaths in developed countries and with changes in physical properties of many soft tissues associated with injury and diseases. My lab has developed a new instrument, the Vibrational OptoScope, to image and measure the mechanical properties of injured and diseased tissues. This noninvasive method uses a combination of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), UltraSound (US), and vibrational measurements. Infrared light reflections from the skin surface are used to create color-coded images. Application of acoustic vibrations ranging from 30 to 1000 Hz from a speaker placed on the skin are used to create skin deformation. The skin movement resulting from these vibrations is used to generate tissue physical data. The resonant frequency and elastic moduli of cellular and macromolecular components of tissues are determined using this approach. For deeper tissues, US is used to locate the anatomical structure of interest below the skin surface. Once area of skin is determined directly above the tissue of interest, the US probe is removed, and the OCT handpiece is placed at that location on the skin surface. The sound is reflected from the subsurface tissues causing movement of the skin due to movement of tissues as deep as muscle and bone. The characteristic resonant frequency of each tissue is a mechanovibrational fingerprint of that anatomical structure. Resonant frequencies vary from about 50 Hz (skin epithelial cells) to 1000 Hz (bone). Changes in the resonant frequency of each tissue occur because of changes associated with aging, diseases, and fibrosis. The purpose of this talk is to present images and mechanovibrational data on skin, tendon, muscle, cartilage, nerve, and bone detailing how changes in these structures can be measured using the vibrational optoscope.
