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Fibre-Optic Devices for Minimally Invasive Medical Procedures
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Fibre-Optic Devices for Minimally Invasive Medical Procedures

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 15807

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sacha Noimark

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
University College London
Dr. Joanna M. Coote

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
University College London
Dr. Richard J. Colchester

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
University College London

Special Issue Information

Currently, there is a trend towards minimally invasive procedures for diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment. Here, only small incisions are used, leading to improved patient outcomes with reduced recovery times, patient discomfort, and healthcare costs. However, accurate and efficient guidance of medical devices within the body is crucial for minimally invasive procedures, and without a direct line of sight, clinicians must rely on state-of-the-art sensing and imaging. This critical need for improved guidance has driven a surge of research into miniaturised devices.

Optical fibres are well-suited to applications in minimally invasive medical procedures, presenting advantages including high signal fidelity, low manufacturing cost, low loss over large lengths, small lateral dimensions, and physical robustness. Fibre-based devices open up new avenues for sensing, therapy, and imaging from within the body, with examples ranging from optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging to shape sensing. This Special Issue is dedicated to highlighting innovative developments in optical fibre sensors for minimally invasive medical procedures. In particular, there will be an emphasis on novel devices with applications in imaging, physiological, and molecular sensing, and tracking within the body, as well as multimodality/multiparameter devices which combine imaging, sensing, and therapy. The Guest Editors cordially invite you to submit your latest research as a full paper or communication paper to this Special Issue devoted to “Fibre-Optic Devices for Minimally Invasive Medical Procedures”.

Dr. Sacha Noimark
Dr. Joanna M. Coote
Dr. Richard J. Colchester
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Fibre optic sensor
  • Fibre optic imaging
  • Optical coherence tomography
  • Photoacoustics
  • Physiological sensors
  • Molecular sensors
  • Fibre optic tracking
  • Fibre optic ultrasound
  • Fibre optic shape sensing
  • Fibre spectroscopy
  • Magnetic sensors
  • Electric field/potential sensors
  • Multi-parameter sensors
  • Multimodal imaging
  • Combined imaging and sensing or therapy devices
  • Haptic and force sensors

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

28 pages, 8735 KiB  
Article
Intraoperative Needle Tip Tracking with an Integrated Fibre-Optic Ultrasound Sensor
by Christian Baker, Miguel Xochicale, Fang-Yu Lin, Sunish Mathews, Francois Joubert, Dzhoshkun I. Shakir, Richard Miles, Charles A. Mosse, Tianrui Zhao, Weidong Liang, Yada Kunpalin, Brian Dromey, Talisa Mistry, Neil J. Sebire, Edward Zhang, Sebastien Ourselin, Paul C. Beard, Anna L. David, Adrien E. Desjardins, Tom Vercauteren and Wenfeng Xiaadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
Sensors 2022, 22(23), 9035; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22239035 - 22 Nov 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3797
Abstract
Ultrasound is an essential tool for guidance of many minimally-invasive surgical and interventional procedures, where accurate placement of the interventional device is critical to avoid adverse events. Needle insertion procedures for anaesthesia, fetal medicine and tumour biopsy are commonly ultrasound-guided, and misplacement of [...] Read more.
Ultrasound is an essential tool for guidance of many minimally-invasive surgical and interventional procedures, where accurate placement of the interventional device is critical to avoid adverse events. Needle insertion procedures for anaesthesia, fetal medicine and tumour biopsy are commonly ultrasound-guided, and misplacement of the needle may lead to complications such as nerve damage, organ injury or pregnancy loss. Clear visibility of the needle tip is therefore critical, but visibility is often precluded by tissue heterogeneities or specular reflections from the needle shaft. This paper presents the in vitro and ex vivo accuracy of a new, real-time, ultrasound needle tip tracking system for guidance of fetal interventions. A fibre-optic, Fabry-Pérot interferometer hydrophone is integrated into an intraoperative needle and used to localise the needle tip within a handheld ultrasound field. While previous, related work has been based on research ultrasound systems with bespoke transmission sequences, the new system—developed under the ISO 13485 Medical Devices quality standard—operates as an adjunct to a commercial ultrasound imaging system and therefore provides the image quality expected in the clinic, superimposing a cross-hair onto the ultrasound image at the needle tip position. Tracking accuracy was determined by translating the needle tip to 356 known positions in the ultrasound field of view in a tank of water, and by comparison to manual labelling of the the position of the needle in B-mode US images during an insertion into an ex vivo phantom. In water, the mean distance between tracked and true positions was 0.7 ± 0.4 mm with a mean repeatability of 0.3 ± 0.2 mm. In the tissue phantom, the mean distance between tracked and labelled positions was 1.1 ± 0.7 mm. Tracking performance was found to be independent of needle angle. The study demonstrates the performance and clinical compatibility of ultrasound needle tracking, an essential step towards a first-in-human study. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fibre-Optic Devices for Minimally Invasive Medical Procedures)
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15 pages, 3038 KiB  
Article
Enhanced Photoacoustic Visualisation of Clinical Needles by Combining Interstitial and Extracorporeal Illumination of Elastomeric Nanocomposite Coatings
by Mengjie Shi, Semyon Bodian, Simeon J. West, Sanjayan Sathasivam, Ross J. Gordon, Paul Collier, Tom Vercauteren, Adrien E. Desjardins, Sacha Noimark and Wenfeng Xia
Sensors 2022, 22(17), 6417; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22176417 - 25 Aug 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2586
Abstract
Ultrasound (US) image guidance is widely used for minimally invasive procedures, but the invasive medical devices (such as metallic needles), especially their tips, can be poorly visualised in US images, leading to significant complications. Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is promising for visualising invasive devices [...] Read more.
Ultrasound (US) image guidance is widely used for minimally invasive procedures, but the invasive medical devices (such as metallic needles), especially their tips, can be poorly visualised in US images, leading to significant complications. Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is promising for visualising invasive devices and peripheral tissue targets. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) acting as PA excitation sources facilitate the clinical translation of PA imaging, but the image quality is degraded due to the low pulse energy leading to insufficient contrast with needles at deep locations. In this paper, photoacoustic visualisation of clinical needles was enhanced by elastomeric nanocomposite coatings with superficial and interstitial illumination. Candle soot nanoparticle-polydimethylsiloxane (CSNP-PDMS) composites with high optical absorption and large thermal expansion coefficients were applied onto the needle exterior and the end-face of an optical fibre placed in the needle lumen. The excitation light was delivered at the surface by LED arrays and through the embedded optical fibre by a pulsed diode laser to improve the visibility of the needle tip. The performance was validated using an ex-vivo tissue model. An LED-based PA/US imaging system was used for imaging the needle out-of-plane and in-plane insertions over approach angles of 20 deg to 55 deg. The CSNP-PDMS composite conferred substantial visual enhancements on both the needle shaft and the tip, with an average of 1.7- and 1.6-fold improvements in signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), respectively. With the extended light field involving extracorporeal and interstitial illumination and the highly absorbing coatings, enhanced visualisation of the needle shaft and needle tip was achieved with PA imaging, which could be helpful in current US-guided minimally invasive surgeries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fibre-Optic Devices for Minimally Invasive Medical Procedures)
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17 pages, 4602 KiB  
Article
Optical Fiber Ball Resonator Sensor Spectral Interrogation through Undersampled KLT: Application to Refractive Index Sensing and Cancer Biomarker Biosensing
by Daniele Tosi, Zhannat Ashikbayeva, Aliya Bekmurzayeva, Zhuldyz Myrkhiyeva, Aida Rakhimbekova, Takhmina Ayupova and Madina Shaimerdenova
Sensors 2021, 21(20), 6721; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21206721 - 10 Oct 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4486
Abstract
Optical fiber ball resonators based on single-mode fibers in the infrared range are an emerging technology for refractive index sensing and biosensing. These devices are easy and rapid to fabricate using a CO2 laser splicer and yield a very low finesse reflection [...] Read more.
Optical fiber ball resonators based on single-mode fibers in the infrared range are an emerging technology for refractive index sensing and biosensing. These devices are easy and rapid to fabricate using a CO2 laser splicer and yield a very low finesse reflection spectrum with a quasi-random pattern. In addition, they can be functionalized for biosensing by using a thin-film sputtering method. A common problem of this type of device is that the spectral response is substantially unknown, and poorly correlated with the size and shape of the spherical device. In this work, we propose a detection method based on Karhunen−Loeve transform (KLT), applied to the undersampled spectrum measured by an optical backscatter reflectometer. We show that this method correctly detects the response of the ball resonator in any working condition, without prior knowledge of the sensor under interrogation. First, this method for refractive index sensing of a gold-coated resonator is applied, showing 1594 RIU−1 sensitivity; then, this concept is extended to a biofunctionalized ball resonator, detecting CD44 cancer biomarker concentration with a picomolar-level limit of detection (19.7 pM) and high specificity (30–41%). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fibre-Optic Devices for Minimally Invasive Medical Procedures)
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20 pages, 6351 KiB  
Article
Annular Fiber Probe for Interstitial Illumination in Photoacoustic Guidance of Radiofrequency Ablation
by Hindrik Kruit, Kalloor Joseph Francis, Elina Rascevska and Srirang Manohar
Sensors 2021, 21(13), 4458; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21134458 - 29 Jun 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3691
Abstract
Unresectable liver tumors are commonly treated with percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA). However, this technique is associated with high recurrence rates due to incomplete tumor ablation. Accurate image guidance of the RFA procedure contributes to successful ablation, but currently used imaging modalities have shortcomings [...] Read more.
Unresectable liver tumors are commonly treated with percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA). However, this technique is associated with high recurrence rates due to incomplete tumor ablation. Accurate image guidance of the RFA procedure contributes to successful ablation, but currently used imaging modalities have shortcomings in device guidance and treatment monitoring. We explore the potential of using photoacoustic (PA) imaging combined with conventional ultrasound (US) imaging for real-time RFA guidance. To overcome the low penetration depth of light in tissue, we have developed an annular fiber probe (AFP), which can be inserted into tissue enabling interstitial illumination of tissue. The AFP is a cannula with 72 optical fibers that allows an RFA device to slide through its lumen, thereby enabling PA imaging for RFA device guidance and ablation monitoring. We show that the PA signal from interstitial illumination is not affected by absorber-to-surface depth compared to extracorporeal illumination. We also demonstrate successful imaging of the RFA electrodes, a blood vessel mimic, a tumor-mimicking phantom, and ablated liver tissue boundaries in ex vivo chicken and bovine liver samples. PA-assisted needle guidance revealed clear needle tip visualization, a notable improvement to current US needle guidance. Our probe shows potential for RFA device guidance and ablation detection, which potentially aids in real-time monitoring. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fibre-Optic Devices for Minimally Invasive Medical Procedures)
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