Date of Graduation

5-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Biological Sciences

Advisor/Mentor

Muldoon, Timothy J

Committee Member/Reader

McNabb, David

Committee Member/Second Reader

Ivey, Mack

Committee Member/Third Reader

Kumar, Suresh

Abstract

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related death in the United States, and the third most common cancer in men and women. This disease is largely asymptomatic and goes unnoticed until the disease has progressed to a later stage. The conventional method of screening and diagnosis of colorectal cancer is white light colonoscopy with biopsy. This technique, although very effective, is limited to the observation of reflected visible light from the mucosal surface of the tissue. As such, regions of occult dysplasia cannot be observed using this diagnostic tool. Hence, this limitation has led to the need for an adjunct tool to allow visualization of abnormal cells before they grow into large polyps. Therefore, the clinical microendoscope was developed for the visualization of cells on the epithelial layer to provide physicians with a procedure for early screening of suspicious lesions, and point-of-care assessment to delineate tumor margins prior to surgical resection of adenocarcinomas. This system was approved for imaging surgically resected colon tissue at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. In order to obtain high-resolution images, an acrylic support template was designed to stabilize the fiber optic image guide in order to allow an increased exposure time and an improved signal-to-noise ratio. Once images were obtained, any changes in the glandular appearance were correlated to histopathology slides that were acquired from the precise location of imaging on the tissue. Image mosaicking was also carried out in order to obtain a wider field-of-view for analysis of regions of occult dysplasia.

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