Patent ID: 11925308
Assignee: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY AND AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 11:
12. A near-infrared dental imaging system, comprising:
a bifurcated optical fiber adapted to be disposed in a first lumen of an endoscope;
a spectrometer optically coupled to a first channel of the bifurcated optical fiber;
a near-infrared camera optically coupled to a second lumen of the endoscope;
a near-infrared illumination source optically coupled to a second channel of the bifurcated optical fiber; and
a data processor in communication with the spectrometer and the near-infrared camera;
wherein the bifurcated optical fiber is configured to receive fluorescent light from a specimen having indocyanine green (ICG) into the first channel and transmit the fluorescent light to the spectrometer,
wherein the spectrometer is configured to detect the fluorescent light from the bifurcated optical fiber and provide a spectroscopic signal to the data processor,
wherein the near-infrared camera is configured to receive near-infrared light from the second lumen of the endoscope and capture a near-infrared two-dimensional dental image of the specimen,
wherein the near-infrared camera is further configured to transmit the near-infrared two-dimensional dental image to the data processor,
wherein the data processor is configured to communicate with a display system to display a two-dimensional dental image of the specimen,
wherein the near-infrared two-dimensional dental image of the specimen captured by the near-infrared camera provides an overview of a wide field imaging field of the specimen and the fluorescent light from the specimen detected by the spectrometer provides a wavelength-resolved spectroscopy of a selected imaged area within the near-infrared two-dimensional dental image, and
wherein the near-infrared camera has a spatial resolution less than 100 mm in near-infrared.