Esophageal OCT Imaging Using a Paddle Probe Externally Attached to Endoscope

Area of Science:

• Gastroenterology
• Biomedical Optics
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• White light endoscopy is insufficient for diagnosing dysplastic changes in Barrett's esophagus (BE).
• High-resolution imaging is needed for accurate assessment of esophageal epithelium.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate an optical imaging method for cross-sectional imaging of esophageal epithelium.
• To assess the feasibility of using Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) with a paddle probe for BE detection.

Main Methods:

• Integrated OCT into a paddle probe attached to a video endoscope.
• Acquired esophageal epithelium images from 30 patients during routine endoscopy.
• Compared OCT-classified images with clinical diagnoses in a blinded review.

Main Results:

• Successfully captured OCT images from 30 patients, identifying squamous and BE epithelium.
• Achieved 91.5% accuracy in classifying BE versus non-BE tissue.
• Demonstrated 84.6% sensitivity and 93.1% specificity for BE detection.

Conclusions:

• A paddle probe is a feasible format for OCT imaging of the esophagus.
• OCT provides structural assessment for BE and non-BE tissue.
• Further miniaturization of the probe could overcome current limitations.