Tissue inspection system with optical fibers and continuous calibration

Abstract

A system for tissue inspection is provided, comprising a console () with a light source (), a spectrometer (), an optical switch () and a processing unit. The system further comprises an elongated shaft (), wherein an illumination fiber (), a plug () in front of the illumination fiber (), and a detection fiber () is provided in the elongated shaft (). The illumination fiber () is capable of transmitting light from the light source () to its front surface and is capable of transmitting light being back-reflected from the plug () to the optical switch (). The detection fiber () is capable of transmitting light reflected from tissue in front of the distal end surface of the elongated shaft () to the optical switch (). The optical switch () is configured to provide the back-reflected light to the spectrometer () for generating a reference spectrum and to provide the light reflected from the tissue to the spectrometer () for generating a diffuse reflectance spectrum. The processing unit is configured to generate a tissue spectrum by normalizing the diffuse reflectance spectrum with the reference spectrum.