All fiber based multispeckle modality endoscopic system for imaging medical cavities.

Disease detection in body cavities, such as the detection of abnormal growths in the colon path, has been illustrated here using an image fiber guided catheter based multispeckle modality endoscopic system. An all fiber-optic approach for the illumination and imaging of the inner cavity walls is adopted here. An endoscope probe to carry the illumination fibers as well as the imaging lens-image fiber unit is designed and custom fabricated in order to operate the probe in its various direction sensitive configurations. This is facilitated by the selection of suitable optical elements such as beam combiner and biprism at the probe proximal end. Experimental investigations were carried out using the endoscope system employing phantom model of colon as the test specimen that has normal and abnormal (representing growth) regions and the obtained results indicated the system effectiveness in identifying the abnormal growths at an early stage.