Abstract
In this manuscript, the initial feasibility of a catheter based phase stabilized swept source optical coherence tomography (OCT) system was studied for characterization of the strain inside different human ovarian tissue groups. The ovarian tissue samples were periodically compressed with 500 Hz square wave signal along the axial direction between the surface of an unfocused transducer and a glass cover slide. The displacement and corresponding strain were calculated during loading from different locations for each tissue sample. A total of 27 ex vivo ovaries from 16 patients were investigated. Statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) was observed between the average displacement and strain of the normal and malignant tissue groups. A sensitivity of 93.2% and a specificity of 83% were achieved using 25 microstrain (με) as the threshold. The collagen content of the tissues was quantified from the Sirius Red stained histological sections. The average collagen area fraction (CAF) obtained from the tissue groups were found to have a strong negative correlation (R = -0.75, p < 0.0001) with the amount of strain inside the tissue. This indicates much softer and degenerated tissue structure for the malignant ovaries as compared to the dense, collagen rich structure of the normal ovarian tissue. The initial results indicate that the swept source OCT system can be useful for estimating the elasticity of the human ovarian tissue.
Highlights
Ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate among all the gynecological cancers
The initial feasibility of a catheter based phase stabilized swept source optical coherence tomography (OCT) system was studied for characterization of the strain inside different human ovarian tissue groups
The displacement and corresponding strain were calculated during loading from different locations for each tissue sample
Summary
Ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate among all the gynecological cancers. This can be mainly attributed to the late stage of detection (mainly stage III and IV) due to lack of effective early screening and diagnostic techniques. PO can reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by more than 50%, the mortality rate of women undergoing premenopausal oophorectomy seems to be considerably increased [2]. Previous studies from optical coherence tomography (OCT) have shown that the collagen content can be a useful marker for detection of ovarian cancer [4]. Optical coherence elastography (OCE) is an extension of conventional OCT, which can measure the micro-mechanical properties of biological tissues [5, 6]. The relative difference in stiffness is expected to provide the mechanical contrast between healthy and malignant ovarian tissues for diagnosis
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