Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Keimyung University, Dalgubeol-daero, Daegu 704-701, Korea.
Sensors (Basel). 2013 Aug 21;13(8):11097-113. doi: 10.3390/s130811097.
Palpation techniques are widely used in medical procedures to detect the presence of lumps or tumors in the soft breast tissues. Since these procedures are very subjective and depend on the skills of the physician, it is imperative to perform detailed a scientific study in order to develop more efficient medical sensors to measure and generate palpation parameters. In this research, we propose an optical-based, artificial palpation sensor for lesion characterization. This has been developed using a multilayer polydimethylsiloxane optical waveguide. Light was generated at the critical angle to reflect totally within the flexible and transparent waveguide. When a waveguide was compressed by an external force, its contact area would deform and cause the light to scatter. The scattered light was captured by a high-resolution camera and saved as an image format. To test the performance of the proposed system, we used a realistic tissue phantom with embedded hard inclusions. The experimental results show that the proposed sensor can detect inclusions and provide the relative value of size, depth, and Young's modulus of an inclusion.
触诊技术在医学程序中被广泛用于检测软组织中肿块或肿瘤的存在。由于这些程序非常主观，并且取决于医生的技能，因此必须进行详细的科学研究，以开发更有效的医学传感器来测量和生成触诊参数。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种基于光学的人工触诊传感器，用于病变特征描述。该传感器使用多层聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）光学波导制成。光在临界角处产生，完全在柔性透明波导内反射。当波导受到外力压缩时，其接触面积会变形，导致光散射。散射光由高分辨率相机捕获并保存为图像格式。为了测试所提出系统的性能，我们使用了具有嵌入式硬夹杂物的逼真组织仿体。实验结果表明，所提出的传感器可以检测夹杂物并提供夹杂物的大小、深度和杨氏模量的相对值。
