Fibre optic probes for endoscopic measurement of uterine hypoxia

Of the women of reproductive age in the UK, a quarter of them are affected by heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB). This has a huge socio-economic burden for woman, their families, the NHS and society while negatively impacting quality of life. Side effects of current hormonal therapies mean up to 60% of women seeking treatment resort to risky, fertility-ending surgical procedures. There is a clear unmet need for effective, fertility-preserving medical treatments for HMB.
We propose an optical fibre-based probe delivered through the working channel of an endoscope that can accurately assess uterine oxygenation. This probe will be designed to transmit and collect broadband white/ NIR (~800 – 1000nm) light using multiple fibre optics co-packaged and modified for side emission / collection of light passing through different depths of tissue. Observed spectral variations reveal haemoglobin oxygen saturation, while the controlled depth measurement allows comparison of the endometrium layer to the deeper myometrium muscular outer layer to observe the expected (or defective) relative hypoxia in the endometrium. Thus, our probe will be able to diagnose a lack of hypoxia in the endometrium at menstruation during hysteroscopy, enabling research into this condition, potentially aiding the correction of this defect with precision medicines.
An initial co-packaged fibre probe has been prototyped, optimising diffuse emission and collection of light into surrounding tissue. An initial investigation shows real time spectral changes, observing the variation in haemoglobin oxygenation due to pulse and breathing. Fibre probes were placed onto tissue. By varying the separation of the fibre probes, the spectral properties of different tissue types at varying depths were observed. Introducing more fibres into the probe offers better resolving of obscured tissue layers, a customised multi-fibre spectroscopy measurement instrument is in development to enable this