Optical Fiber Catheter with Distal End Bending Mechanism Control for Raman Biospectroscopy

This work proposes the development of an optical catheter with bending control of the distal end. The probe consists of seven optical fibers wrapped in a resin and a biocompatible flexible teflon tube with a novel mechanical device that allows bending of the distal extremity to access a desired location of a human organ. A central fiber is used for tissue Raman excitation, five fibers are used for Raman signal collection, and the seventh for “optoclinical” treatment applications. Infrared, dispersive Raman spectra at 785 nm excitation were employed to optically characterize the proposed catheter. An excitation transmission loss of 16% was found compared to the traditional six collecting fibers catheter, both with their distal tip straight. By bending of the distal tip at different angles, with turning the intermediated section of the catheter around cylinders of different diameters (one finds a correlation between curvature angle of the tip and cylinder diameter), the transmission loss coefficient and transmission were determined for each distal tip angle. A transmission reduction of 5% was found for a 180° curvature. This optical catheter could be very useful in clinics, providing a way to control the fiber tip position and angle onto the tissue or organ.