Imaging Device for the Assessment of Airways in Combat Casualties with Inhalation Injury due to Burns, Smoke, or Toxic Gases

For early inhalation injury diagnosis, currently, clinicians rely on bronchoscopy and relatively rudimentary clinical findings to make critical clinical decisions regarding prophylactic intubation and ventilator support. Assessing extent of impending airway swelling that often develops, including vessel hyperemia, edema, and sloughing of tracheal ciliated columnar epithelium are very important to clinical decision making. Measuring these functional and structural changes from within the lumen of airway during bronchoscopy is difficult because many of these changes occur in sub-mucosa at microscopic level. To solve these problems, OCT medical Imaging Inc (OCTMI), propose to develop and test an advanced light-based, fiber-optic imaging system using, platform imaging technology known as optical coherence tomography (OCT). Using eight licensed issued patents, OCTMI will develop a 3D real-time, field-deployable, cost-effective system that will detect not only structural changes at high resolution but also will be capable of quantitatively measuring structural and functional changes in submucosa using Doppler OCT and polarization sensitive OCT technologies. Once fully developed, clinicians using these systems will be able to accurately, objectively, and reproducibly assess clinically critical structural and functional information for early diagnosis, monitoring, and assessment of treatment response in the airway from combat injuries due to exposure to toxic gases, burns, and smoke.