Optische Kohärenztomographie des Kehlkopfs am wachen Patienten – machbar und vielversprechend

Introduction

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is an emerging technology that can generate non-invasive, high-resolution, micrometer-scale, cross-sectional images of biological tissues. Many studies have shown the general ability of OCT in depicting microstructure of epithelial layers. To our knowledge, there is no office-based setup for endoscopic non-contact OCT of the larynx until today.

Material and methods

In our setting, we examined awake patients with our flexible OCT transnasal endoscope prior to their electively planned panendoscopy with biopsies in general anaesthesia. We positioned a forward-viewing OCT probe within the working channel of a flexible laryngoscope (ENF-VT3, Olympus), which supports RGB imaging rates of up to 30 Hz.

Results

Average measuring time was between 5 and 10 minutes, which allowed the procedure to be performed easily within the patients pre-operative preparation appointment in our clinic. OCT images were obtained from vocal cords and from supralaryngeal structures, including vallecula and aryepiglottic fold. The OCT images depicted the vocal fold mucosal microstructure, with highly visible demarcation of the epithelium layer, the basement membrane and the lamina propria. Our OCT-probe flexible laryngoscope setup was a well-applicable and manageable device which obtained high-quality and high-resolution images in the awake patient, allowing fast and replicable OCT data collection of normal and pathologic laryngeal tissue.

Discussion

In prospect, the procedure could be a helpful tool in the interpretation and diagnosis of early-stage glottic cancer, but further measurements with more patients and correllation of OCT images with histopathological findings would be necessary.

Nein