Side-viewing fiberoptic catheter for biospectroscopy applications

Utilization of fiberoptic catheters can turn the Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy systems into powerful bio-medical diagnostic probes. An in vivo bio-chemical diagnosis of some important organs like the esophagus, intestine, lung branches, artery, etc., can be possible by developing fiber-probes with good signal collection capabilities, a good flexibility to scan different spatial regions of the sample and less background signals generated in the probes themselves. An in vivo diagnosis of endoluminal inner walls utilizing front-viewing catheters (FVC) is very difficult because the internal diameter of these organs do not allow (excitation and collection) flexibility to access the different spatial regions of the sample. In this work we have developed, different side-viewing catheter (SVC) probes with a very small distal tip (semi sphere, φ~1.5 mm) and micro mirrors allow beam steering of the excitation and collected radiation at a 90 degree angle. Preliminary results of spectroscopic applications have been presented. Reflectance, fluorescence and Raman scattering measurements have been used to compare the efficiency of SVC with traditional FVC probes. The results demonstrate that the SVC probes not only exhibit more flexibility but also similar spectral characteristics and signal collection efficiencies in comparison with conventional FVC probes.