Finger-mounted quantitative micro-elastography

Rowan W. Sanderson, Andrea Curatolo, Philip Wijesinghe, Lixin Chin, Brendan F. Kennedy

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present a finger-mounted quantitative micro-elastography (QME) probe, capable of measuring the elasticity of biological tissue in a format that avails of the dexterity of the human finger. Finger-mounted QME represents the first demonstration of a wearable elastography probe. The approach realizes optical coherence tomography-based elastography by focusing the optical beam into the sample via a single-mode fiber that is fused to a length of graded-index fiber. The fiber is rigidly affixed to a 3D-printed thimble that is mounted on the finger. Analogous to manual palpation, the probe compresses the tissue through the force exerted by the finger. The resulting deformation is measured using optical coherence tomography. Elasticity is estimated as the ratio of local stress at the sample surface, measured using a compliant layer, to the local strain in the sample. We describe the probe fabrication method and the signal processing developed to achieve accurate elasticity measurements in the presence of motion artifact. We demonstrate the probe's performance in motion-mode scans performed on homogeneous, bi-layer and inclusion phantoms and its ability to measure a thermally-induced increase in elasticity in ex vivo muscle tissue. In addition, we demonstrate the ability to acquire 2D images with the finger-mounted probe where lateral scanning is achieved by swiping the probe across the sample surface. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Original languageEnglish
Article number#351772
Pages (from-to)1760-1773
Number of pages14
JournalBiomedical Optics Express
Volume10
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2019

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