Patent ID: 8795197

Claim:
A method of obtaining a histological biopsy sample comprising: (a) selecting a Frictional Tissue Sampling and Collection (FTSC) head including a distal cylindrical portion and a proximal tapered portion with a facet region and a non-facet region, where the facet region extends from the distal cylindrical portion to the proximal tapered portion, where the facet region includes an associated facet, where the non facet region extends from the distal cylindrical portion to the proximal tapered portion, wherein the FTSC head is received in a handle with an axis of rotation, wherein one or more of the FTSC head size, FTSC head shape, facet size, facet surface and facet shape are selected based on the nature of a biopsy sampling location to be sampled, where a plurality of semi-rigid loops extend outwards from the facet surface configured to collect the histological biopsy sample including fragments sheared from an epithelial surface away from underlying stroma at the biopsy sampling location, where the non-facet region of the FTSC head is configured to not collect the histological biopsy sample; (b) placing the head of the FTSC device on the biopsy sampling location; (c) rotating around the axis of rotation in a first direction one or both the handle and the FTSC head to frictionally abrade the biopsy sampling location; and (d) removing the FTSC head from the biopsy sampling location.