Multimodal multispectral imaging of the cervix in vivo for the detection of neoplasia

Optical spectroscopy has been shown to be an effective method for detecting neoplasia of epithelial tissues. Most studies to date in this realm have applied fluorescence or reflectance spectroscopy alone as a preferred method of disease detection. We have been developing instrumentation which can acquire both reflectance and fluorescence images of the human cervix in vivo, with the goal of combining multispectral information from the two spectroscopic modalities. This instrumentation has been tested on a group of patients in a clinical setting. We have applied spectral and spatial analysis techniques to the acquired images to assess the capabilities of this technology to discriminate neoplastic from normal cervical tissue.