Navigated OCT – NOCT

The current biopsy procedure is to introduce a needle inside the patient towards a given target using echography imaging for control of the position. Reaching the target at the right position is a real issue for diagnosis, therapy and also prognosis, for example concerning tumors or abscess.

The NOCT project aims at developing two apparatus, one for imaging and one for navigation, integrated in a complete clinical application of real-time echography navigated biopsy, which would be the first of its kind in the world.

We will build an optical imaging system with a needle-like probe that could perform virtual “optical biopsy” prior to the excision of the sample by revealing in vivo the fine microstructures of the tissue. Full-Field OCT is the best-suited technique for this purpose. This technology is now commercialized in a microscope for ex vivo imaging, and we plan on adapting it in a system with a thin rigid probe, with emphasize on ergonomic constraints such as the diameter and length of the needle.
We will create a precise surgical navigation system that will be adapted to the clinical ambulatory context, so that it would become in the next decade a reference system for computer assisted medical interventions.

This project is a translational research between physics, informatics and medicine, where a key point is to adapt novel technologic apparatus to specific clinical needs.
With the aim of the future clinical application we will characterize the preclinical and clinical performance and pay attention on risk management and authorization from the CPP, ANSM and HAS.

We will meet these challenges as a consortium of five partners: two laboratories specialized in optics and in computer assisted medical interventions, Institut Langevin-ESPCI and TIMC-IMAG, one clinical investigation center specialized in interventional radiology and computer assisted medical interventions, CIC-IT, and two private companies that will industrialize the final resulting systems, LLTech and Surgiqual Institute.