FIBER TEMPERATURE SENSOR FOR HYPERTHERMIA TREATMENT

To improve hyperthermia and thermotherapy treatments by providing a realistic, cost effective and efficient technique for temperature profiling in treated tissues, Intelligent Optical Systems proposes to develop an optical fiber temperature (OFT) probe providing 10 points of high resolution temperature data in a single fiber. The OFT probe is an efficient alternative to thick bundles of arrayed single point temperature probes and expensive MRI thermometry to provide distributed temperature monitoring in tissue. In addition to BPH treatments, all intracavital treatments will benefit from the OFTs in-situ temperature profiling. Due to its non-conducting nature, the optical fiber probe is especially suited to radio frequency and microwave hyperthermia applications. In Phase I, the OFT probe demonstrated temperature measurement every 0.5 cm along the optical fiber with an accuracy of 0.2 degrees C, while reading all 7 points simultaneously in less than 5 seconds. These features of our OFT probe have already received keen interest from potential commercial partners. lOS proposes to develop a complete, clinically validated sensor probe with optoelectronic instrumentation as the Phase II end product.