Longitudinal Monitoring of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Mice Using Endoscopic Optical Coherence Tomography

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is one of the fastest-growing diseases globally. Nearly 5 million people are affected by IBD, with an incremental growth rate of 47.45% between 1990 and 2019. AIM AND METHODS: We aim to provide a noninvasive approach to detecting IBD with an in-house developed 1310 nm endoscopic optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. Mice with acute colitis underwent a longitudinal colon imaging process for real-time and long-run disease progression. The OCT images were processed and segmented using a computer vision image processing-based segmentation algorithm for further thickness mapping and attenuation coefficient calculations. RESULT: An increase in overall colon wall thickness due to inflammation was observed, as well as a reduction in attenuation coefficient due to a change in refractive index. CONCLUSION: Comparable results with white light endoscope and histological examination suggest the clinical potential of the 1310 nm endoscopic OCT system for in vivo assessment of IBD.