title: Design and characterization of a novel multimodal fiber-optic probe and spectroscopy system for skin cancer applications.
abstract: The design and characterization of an instrument combining Raman, fluorescence, and reflectance spectroscopic modalities is presented. Instrument development has targeted skin cancer applications as a novel fiber-optic probe has been specially designed to interrogate cutaneous lesions. The instrument is modular and both its software and hardware components are described in depth. Characterization of the fiber-optic probe is also presented, which details the probe's ability to measure diagnostically important parameters such as intrinsic fluorescence and absorption and reduced scattering coefficients along with critical performance metrics such as high Raman signal-to-noise ratios at clinically practical exposure times. Validation results using liquid phantoms show that the probe and system can extract absorption and scattering coefficients with less than 10% error. As the goal is to use the instrument for the clinical early detection of skin cancer, preliminary clinical data are also presented, which indicates our system's ability to measure physiological quantities such as relative collagen and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide concentration, oxygen saturation, blood volume fraction, and mean vessel diameter.
authors.affiliation: Biophotonics Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78759, USA.
authors.forename: Manu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: EmVision LLC, Loxahatchee, Florida 33470, USA.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marple
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of Texas Southwestern, Austin, Texas 78701, USA.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reichenberg
authors.affiliation: Biophotonics Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78759, USA.
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Tunnell
mesh_terms: D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D055100:Optical Fibers; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods