An endoscope with optoelectronic sensors for direct assessment of physiological conditions of organs and tissues, applicable to any minimally invasive medical or veterinary procedure for diagnosis, monitoring, and conventional or endoscopic surgery.

An endoscope with attached optoelectronic sensors has been designed to facilitate assessment of physiological conditions of organs and tissues using minimally invasive medical procedures.

The sensors are composed by a combination of microelectronic emitters producing light with specific wavelengths (laser emitters or LEDs) and microelectronic detectors capable of producing a electronic signal relative to the amount of detected light (e.g. silicon photodiodes). Therefore the endoscope can be used to determine in vivo a number of physiological parameters related to the response of organs and tissues to light of a given wavelength. Since the emitters and detectors may be positioned to adopt different features, determinations based on transmitted or reflected optical radiation, such as those used in photoplethysmography and in pulse oxymetry are possible. Moreover, transmittance and reflectance features may also be combined.

The applicability of this device has been already demonstrated in animals: the pulse measured using the novel endoscope located on top of an internal blood vessel of the gastric area was fully coincident with the values of cardiac frequency obtained by electrocardiography.

Main advantages

• In vivo measurement.
• Immediate, continuous determinations.
• High specificity, since the endoscope allows positioning accurately the sensors onto a specific area of an organ or tissue.
• A variety of physiological parameters may be determined using different combinations of sensors.
• Benefiting from all the advantages of the minimally invasive procedures (shorter recovery period following surgery, less pain after operation, lower risk of infection, more specific surgical treatment) and complementing these approaches with a highly improved determination of physiological parameters.
• Applicability to diagnosis and conventional surgery.
  

Early Stage

Priority patent applied for.

A patent license agreement with a company able to manufacture and market the product is sought.