A mobile-phone based high-resolution microendoscope to image cervical precancer

Abstract

Nearly 90% of cervical cancer cases and deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries that lack comprehensive national HPV immunization and cervical cancer screening programs. In these settings, it is difficult to implement screening programs due to a lack of infrastructure and shortage of trained personnel. Screening programs based on visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) have been successfully implemented in some low-resource settings. However, VIA has poor specificity and up to 90% of patients receiving treatment based on a positive VIA exam are over-treated. A number of studies have suggested that high-resolution cervical imaging to visualize nuclear morphology in vivo can improve specificity by better distinguishing precancerous and benign lesions. To enable high-resolution imaging in low-resource settings, we developed a portable, low-cost, high-resolution microendoscope that uses a mobile phone to detect and display images of cervical epithelium in vivo with subcellular resolution. The device was fabricated for less than $2,000 using commercially available optical components including filters, an LED and triplet lenses assembled in a 3D-printed opto-mechanical mount. We show that the mobile high-resolution microendoscope achieves similar resolution and signal-to-background ratio as previously reported high-resolution microendoscope systems using traditional cameras and computers to detect and display images. Finally, we demonstrate the ability of the mobile high-resolution microendoscope to image normal and precancerous squamous epithelium of the cervix in vivo in a gynecological referral clinic in Barretos, Brazil.

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Grant, Benjamin D., Quang, Timothy, Possati-Resende, Júlio César, et al.. "A mobile-phone based high-resolution microendoscope to image cervical precancer." PLoS ONE, 14, no. 2 (2019) Public Library of Science: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211045.

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This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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