Photoacoustic Endoscopy of Barrett's Esophagus

Endoscopy is an important technique in medicine to diagnose internal organs. Video endoscopy has been the most common technique providing clear, real time video images of organs' surfaces. However, this technique only images the surface and cannot effectively diagnose diseased tissues that develop in endothelial tissues. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has been developed to overcome this limitation, and it is widely utilized in diagnosing GI diseases. This technique can image very deep areas of organs, up to several centimeters; however, it suffers from speckle artifacts and cannot adequately provide early diagnosis of tissue abnormalities that do not show mechanical properties that differ significantly from those of normal tissues. The investigators propose that photoacoustic endoscopy (PAE), an endoscopic embodiment of the rapidly growing photoacoustic tomography (PAT) technology, can fulfill the aforementioned need.