In vivo minimally invasive interstitial multi-functional microendoscopy.

Developing minimally invasive methodologies for imaging of internal organs is an emerging field in the biomedical examination research. This paper introduces a new multi-functional microendoscope device capable of imaging of internal organs with a minimal invasive intervention. In addition, the developed microendoscope can also be employed as a monitoring device for measuring local hemoglobin concentration in blood stream when administrated into a blood artery. The microendoscope device has a total external diameter of only 200 μm and can provide high imaging resolution capability of more than 5,000 pixels. The device can detect features with a spatial resolution of less than 1 μm. The microendoscope has been tested both in-vitro as well as in-vivo in rats presenting a promising and powerful tool as a high resolution and minimally invasive imaging facility suitable for previously unreachable clinical modalities.