Towards Optical Biopsies with an Integrated Fibered Confocal Fluorescence Microscope

This paper presents an integrated endoscope-compatible Fibered Confocal Fluorescence Microscope (FCFM) for medical imaging, the F400. In situ high resolution images can be obtained thanks to a set of flexible miniaturized optical probes of 0.5 to 1.5 mm diameter that can be inserted through the working channel of an endoscope. We briefly present in this paper the FCFM system, with a particular focus on the image formation and the design of a dedicated image processing software allowing for drastically reduce the inherent artifacts occurring when imaging through an image bundle. The goal of the FCFM is to perform optical biopsy (i.e. in vivo and in situ observations of thin sections of biological tissues at the cellular level). As a first step towards this goal, we present here results of a clinical trial assessing the ability of the F-400 to perform rapid morphologic examination in the endoscopy room of medical specimens (polypectomy).