Patent ID: 8023119
Filing Date: 2011-09-20
Classification: G01B

Abstract:
1. A method for identifying a normal or abnormal mucosa sample with optical coherence tomography, comprising: (a) providing a normal mucosa sample and a suspected abnormal mucosa sample from an individual; (b) scanning the normal mucosa sample and the suspected abnormal mucosa sample with optical coherence tomography, respectively; (c) according to a two-dimensional optical coherence tomography image, selecting a specific lateral range from a surface of the normal mucosa sample and the suspected abnormal mucosa sample, respectively, wherein the lengths of the specific lateral ranges from the surface of the normal mucosa sample and from the surface of the suspected abnormal mucosa sample are the same; (d) calculating a standard deviation (SD), an exponential decay constants (α) and an epithelium thicknesses (T) for each of A-scan intensity signal profiles within the specific lateral range from the surface of the normal mucosa sample and from the surface of the suspected abnormal mucosa sample, respectively; (e) comparing scanned results for the normal mucosa sample and the suspected abnormal mucosa sample, respectively, wherein the standard deviation (SD), the exponential decay constants (α) and the epithelium thicknesses (T) of the A-scan intensity signal profile changes with a position of the selected specific lateral range, and then obtaining the means of all the standard deviation (SD), all the exponential decay constants (α) and all the epithelium thicknesses (T) within the specific lateral range from the normal mucosa sample and from the suspected abnormal mucosa sample, respectively; (f) comparing the means of all the standard deviation (SD), all the exponential decay constants (α) and all the epithelium thicknesses (T) within the specific lateral range from the normal mucosa sample and from the suspected abnormal mucosa sample, respectively; and (g) the suspected abnormal mucosa sample being an abnormal sample when the mean of all the standard deviations (SD) of the suspected abnormal mucosa sample is greater than the normal mucosa sample, the suspected abnormal mucosa sample being an abnormal sample when the mean of all the exponential decay constants (α) of the suspected abnormal mucosa sample is less than the normal mucosa sample, and the suspected abnormal mucosa sample being an abnormal sample when the mean of all the epithelium thicknesses (T) of the suspected abnormal mucosa sample is greater than the normal mucosa sample under the condition that a boundary between an epithelium and a lamina propria of the of the mucosa sample exists.