Development of an Ultrasound and Photoacoustic Endoscopy System for Imaging of Gynecological Disorders

Visualization and detection of early-stage gynecological cancers is currently a challenging endeavor due to the difficulty in accessing to these tissues especially through the cervical canal. In this work, a miniaturized phased-array US and photo acoustic (P A) endoscopic probe is introduced, which is capable of augmenting the morphological data of US transducers with the functional and molecular information of P A imaging for the diagnosis of gynecologic diseases. The fabricated probe is 7.5 mm in width allowing for intimate contact with pathological tissues and provides the user with realtime information regarding tissue morphology as well as function, as determined by molecular absorption spectra. The multi-modal image generated by this probe is expected to aid clinicians in diagnosing early stage gynecological cancers, such as cervical, ovarian and uterine cancers.