Widefield mapping of tissue oxygen saturation through a flexible colonoscope

Endogenous chromophore mapping has been applied for distinguishing healthy and malignant tissue, but challenges with adapting these techniques for use with flexible endoscopes have limited exploration in gastrointestinal imaging. To enable investigative imaging in-vivo, a clinical colonoscope was retrofitted with custom fiber optics for coupling with both standard-of-care and external light sources. A multispectral illumination source with eight narrowband channels was constructed from multimode laser diodes for measuring tissue reflectance. Following benchtop validation with calibration targets, the system and correction methods were applied to human screening colonoscopies to estimate oxygen saturation of lesions and surrounding healthy tissue.