Jennifer Kehlet Barton

Early detection of ovarian cancer is only achieved in around 20% of women due to lack of effective screening. We propose a method for surveillance of high risk women based on a microendoscope introduced transvaginally to image the fallopian tubes and ovaries. This requires extreme miniaturization of the optics and catheter sheath. We describe the design of a falloposcope that combines optical coherence tomography (OCT) and wide field imaging into a sub-1 mm diameter package. We characterize the systems and show that they provide contrast on ex-vivo samples of ovary and fallopian tube. In addition, we show the mechanical performance of the endoscope in an anatomically correct model of the female reproductive tract.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a nondestructive imaging modality with the potential to make quantitative spatial measurements. OCT's noncontact nature, sensitivity to small refractive index mismatches, and micron-scale resolution make it attractive for contact lens metrology, specifically, measuring prism. Prism is defined as the maximum difference in thickness of the contact lens, measured over a full 360 deg of rotation, at a fixed distance from the contact lens edge. We develop and test a novel algorithm that automatically analyzes OCT images and calculates prism. Images are obtained using a Thorlabs OCT930SR OCT system. The OCT probe is fastened to an automated rotation stage that rotates 360 deg in small increments (typically 10 deg) to acquire OCT images of the edge of the contact lens around the entire circumference. The images are 1.6 mm in optical depth (512 pixels) and 2 mm wide (1000 pixels). Several sets of images are successfully analyzed. The prism measured for a toric lens is 42 microm, which is in line with design parameters. Thickness measurements are repeatable with a standard deviation of 0.5 microm and maximum range of 1.8 microm over ten image sets. This work demonstrates the possibility of using OCT to perform nondestructive contact lens metrology.