Validation of an ex vivo human cervical tissue model for optical imaging studies.

Objective: To establish and validate an ex vivo human cervical tissue model for optical coherence tomography (OCT) studies with special emphasis on investigating time dependent structural changes of the epithelium.

Methods: Four hundred OCT images were taken from 80 unsuspicious and suspicious areas of 18 fresh conisation specimens immediately after resection (0 hour) and 1, 2, 3, and 4 hours, referred to as waiting times in the following, postoperatively and compared to the corresponding histology. For each 2D-OCT-image, a 1D-intensity profile was generated. The profiles were analyzed with respect to systematic differences which may result from different waiting times, employing discriminant analysis (DA).

Results: The different waiting times do not appear to imply significant differences among the corresponding OCT-images as represented by the intensity profiles.

Conclusion: We conclude that the proposed cervical tissue model appears to be applicable for ex vivo OCT studies.