The team of Xiaojing Gong at Shenzhen Advanced Institute published the results of the first OCT-ultrasound dual-mode endoscopy and endometrial biopsy evaluation in small animals
Date：2022-09-14 Author： click：
Recently, Xiaojing Gong and his team from the Center for Biomedical Optics and Molecular Imaging, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Zhiyi Chen and his team from the Institute of Medical Imaging, the First Affiliated Hospital of the University of South China, Published In the internationally renowned Biomedical Optics journal Biomedical Optics Express entitled "In vivo evaluation of endometrium through dual-modality intrauterine endoscopy "reported the world's first bimodal endoscopy system and quantitative evaluation of endometrium in vivo imaging of small animals in utero. The important value of this paper in the field of reproductive health was recognized by the journal, and it was recommended by the journal official (Editor's Pick). It was reported by the News Department of the Optical Society of America (Dual-Mode Endoscope Offers Unprecedented Insights into Uterine Health). Dr. Jinke Zhang is the first author of the paper, and Xiaojing Gong, Professor Zhiyi Chen and Associate Professor Zhihua Xie are co-corresponding authors.
Currently, the infertility rate among couples of childbearing age has climbed to 18 percent. A successful pregnancy depends on the quality of the embryo, the receptivity of the endometrium, and the interaction between the embryo and the endometrial epithelium. In addition to improving embryo quality, accurate evaluation of endometrial receptivity is also of great significance. Endometrial receptivity abnormalities, which account for 67 percent of failed implantation cases, are widely considered to be a key factor affecting pregnancy. Therefore, the development of efficient and accurate endometrial receptivity assessment techniques is a key need in the field of reproductive health.
Figure 1: Cross-sectional images of New Zealand White rabbit uterus in ultrasonic mode (top) and OCT mode (middle) and three-dimensional expansion of endometrium (bottom)
To address this clinical problem, the research team developed a dual-mode endoscopic imaging system based on OCT/ ultrasound. The system can obtain three-dimensional information of the entire endometrium from the surface to the deep layer. OCT can achieve fine imaging of the endometrium, and ultrasound can achieve holistic imaging of the endometrium. And based on this system, the quantitative evaluation of endometrial injury was realized.
In a rabbit model of endometrial injury, the two-modal endoscopy system achieved the world's first in-vivo imaging of a small animal and distinguished healthy and injured endometrial tissue. The results of quantitative evaluation and analysis further proved that the accuracy of intimal damage assessment was significantly improved by combining the two modes compared with a single mode. This work demonstrates the value of this technique for assessing endometrial receptivity and shows clinical potential for application in reproductive health and diagnosis of other uterine diseases.
图2: a) 子宫内膜损伤模型兔的OCT/超声图像及其图像分割和量化方法; b) 通过双模态获取的信息可以判断子宫内膜的损伤程度，验证了双模态的必要性
Figure 3: Schematic diagram of the dual mode probe
This series of research work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation, Guangdong Province, Shenzhen City and other science and technology projects. At the same time, it has been strongly supported by the "Joint Laboratory of Medical Interventional Devices" established by our hospital and Dongguan Dushi Chengfa Precision Spring Co., LTD.
