Patent ID: 7598088
Filing Date: 2009-10-06
Classification: A61B,G01N

Abstract:
1. An optical imaging method for diagnosing pathological tissue in vivo, comprising the steps of: administering a pathology differentiating agent to an examination area of a tissue sample, wherein said pathology differentiating agent provokes a transient alteration in an optical property of said tissue sample; exposing the examination area of the tissue sample to optical radiation; substantially eliminating a relative motion between the tissue sample and an optical head in order to substantially align the spatial points of the examination area of the tissue sample and the optical head; measuring the intensity of light re-emitted from the examination area of the tissue sample with the optical head at various time instances from a start time t for each XY spatial point of the examination area of the tissue sample, computing data representative of the intensity of the light (PV calculating at least one dynamic optical property of the tissue in the examination area from the data corresponding to a time extending from about the start time (t generating an image of the kinetics of the phenomenon (KI) to express a spatial distribution of the at least one dynamic optical property, the image having pixel values corresponding to each spatial point of the examination area of the tissue sample, wherein the image provides a visual representation for evaluation of the intensity and extent of the provoked transient alteration to diagnose pathological tissue in vivo.