March 17, 2008, St. Petersburg, FL--Michelson Diagnostics Ltd. (MDL; Orpington, England) announced at the OSA Biomed meeting here that it has commenced the engineering phase of development of probes for in vivo imaging with optical coherence tomography (OCT).
According to MDL Applications Director Dr. Gordon McKenzie, more than one type of probe will start clinical testing during 2008, although initially the company is targeting oral cancer. The probes will be suitable for a variety of applications, including research into diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of cancer of the oral cavity, esophagus, skin, cervix, colorectal tract, and lung.
"All of the probes will use MDL's breakthrough multi-beam OCT technology, which will provide at least double the resolution of competing equipment, for much crisper, clearer image of clinical features." The probes will be connected to an external diode-laser source via a fiberoptic cable.
Dr McKenzie confirmed that users of the existing EX1301 OCT Microscope will easily be able to upgrade to the in-vivo technology as soon as it is released. He also said that MDL is interested in finding clinical teams that are interested in conducting clinical trials with the in-vivo probes.