Abstract

We are developing a miniature dual-axes confocal microscope (DACM) for the early detection of disease in the human gastrointestinal tract. This device will be deployed through the instrument channel of an endoscope and will visualize molecularly-targeted fluorescent probes with sub-cellular resolution and deep tissue penetration. Towards achieving this goal, we quantitatively investigate the optical-sectioning ability of dual-axes confocal microscopy through reflectance mirror-model experiments in a tissue phantom. The results indicate that axial and transverse spatial resolution (FWHM) is preserved when imaging deep into tissue but that contrast quickly deteriorates as the scattering background overwhelms the ballistic signal. These reflectance experiments also indicate that the dual-axes confocal architecture provides efficient spatial filtering of scattered light to enable deep three-dimensional microscopy in tissues. As a practical demonstration in support of the results from our tissue-phantom studies, we present deep fluorescence optical sections of biological tissues

© 2008 Optical Society of America