Tiny endoscope images hard-to-reach areas

By Patricia Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have created a miniature endoscope with a flexible probe about the size of a human hair that produces high definition, three-dimensional images from inside the body.

The tiny tool can get to areas other endoscopes can't reach and could lead to less invasive surgery and quicker recovery times, its developers said on Wednesday.

"It's special because it is very flexible and it also gives much more information. It gives three-dimensional information," said Dr Dvir Yelin, of Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States.

Bigger endoscopes produce high quality two-dimensional images but their size limits their use. Smaller models get into more difficult areas but the quality of the images they produce is not as good.

The minuscule endoscope described by Yelin and his team in the latest edition of the journal Nature uses a technology called spectrally encoded endoscopy (SEE) to get sharp images from the tiny instrument.

INSIDE VIEW

Endoscopes, which were invented 50 years ago, enable doctors to see organs inside the body. They can also be used to take small biopsies and to perform less invasive surgery.

SEE uses multicoloured light from a single optic fibre that acts like a probe to produce an image of the tissue or organ. The fibre can pass through a small needle and be inserted into the body.

"What is completely new is the ability to put diffraction grating on the tip of that probe," Yelin told Reuters.

Diffraction grating acts like a prism to send different wavelengths to different directions.

"This is the enabling technology," he said.

The scientists used the tiny endoscope to image ovarian cancer tumours in mice. The probe was inserted into the abdominal cavity of the animals though a fine-gauge needle. The images showed tiny details of the tumour which were confirmed when the tissue was analysed by the researchers.

Other imaging devices such as ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging don't give the same details, Yelin said.

Because the instrument is so small and flexible it could potentially be used to probe areas such as the fallopian tubes, small ducts in the breast and other organs.

"This new technology will offer physicians and surgeons the capability to bring many more procedures into outpatient settings, reduce anesthesia requirements and minimise tissue damage," Guillermo Tearney, who helped to develop the endoscope, said in a statement.