Confocal endoscope for tomographic imaging of tissue

In order to obtain a tomographic image of tissue, a confocal endoscopic imaging system was established, and its axial and lateral resolutions were measured and analyzed. The application of the imaging system to pig skin tissue was investigated. Based on the requirement of the system, the principle and configuration of the imaging system were presented. Then, the theoretical values of spatial resolution were shown in confocal endoscope. Finally, the system performance was tested, and the reasons for the difference between measuring data and theoretical values were explained. The experimental results indicate that the axial and lateral resolutions of the imaging system of the confocal endoscope are 10 μm and 1.9 μm, respectively, and it can be used to obtain tomographic image in pig skin.