Adaptive optical system distortion technology can achieve high-definition medical imaging

The emergence of real-time 3D microscopic tissue imaging technology is a revolution in medical fields such as cancer diagnosis, minimally invasive surgery, and ophthalmology. According to the physicist organization network reported on April 23, researchers at the University of Illinois developed a technology for correcting optical tomography distortions using a computational adaptive optical system, which brings prospects for future "high-definition" medical imaging. Relevant technical achievements are published in the latest online edition of the "Journal of the National Academy of Sciences".

Stephen, a postdoctoral fellow in advanced science and technology at the Beckman Institute in the United States, said: "This technology can surpass the current optical system and ultimately obtain the best quality images and 3D data. This will be a very useful real-time imaging technology.

Distortions such as astigmatism or distortions trouble high-resolution imaging. It will make spots of objects look like spots or stripes. The higher the resolution, the worse the problem. This is a particularly difficult problem in tissue imaging, and accuracy is crucial for correct diagnosis.

Adaptive optics can correct the distortion of the imaging, and is widely used in astronomy to correct the deformation of the star filter when it passes through the atmosphere. Medical scientists have begun to apply the hardware of this adaptive optical system to microscopes, hoping to improve imaging of cells and tissues.

But Stephen, a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Department of Bioengineering and Internal Medicine at the University of Illinois, pointed out that this is equally challenging. There are many optical problems in applying it to tissue and cell imaging instead of imaging stars through the atmosphere. The hardware-based adaptive optical system is complicated and expensive, and the adjustment is cumbersome, so it is not suitable for medical scanning.

As a result, the team used computer software to discover and correct image distortions, replacing hardware-based adaptive optics, called computational adaptive optics. The researchers used this technique to demonstrate the phantom of rat lung tissue containing microscopic particle gels. Scan the tissue sample with the two beams of the optical imaging equipment interference microscope. After the computer collects all the data, correct all the depth images so that the blurred stripes become sharp points and the features appear. The user can click the mouse to change the parameters. The researchers said: "We can correct the distortion of the entire study volume and present high-definition images anywhere. From this, we can now see all the organizational structures that were not very clear before."

This technology can be applied to desktop computers in many hospitals and clinics, and can perform interference imaging of any type, such as optical coherence tomography.