ABSTRACT
This chapter dedicates to the aspects of fiber optics (waveguide) concepts providing an overview of past, current, and future developments in the challenging area of biomedical fiber optics. It overviews the different types of conventional and specialty optical fibers employed in biomedical applications. Fiber optics applications in the biomedical area are mainly focuses on optical spectroscopy and bio-imaging applications. The light sources have found tremendous applications in the biomedical arena for a wide range of electromagnetic spectra such as x-ray, ultraviolet (UV), visible, near infrared (NIR) and extending to the mid-IR region. The chapter discusses one of the novel designs using conventional and specialty fiber optics incorporating various concepts and techniques for imaging with multiple modalities. It gives attention to the recently developed multimodality imaging and sensing system known as the Endo-Speckle-Fluoroscope (E-S-F) probe. The design of the E-S-F system was based on the concept of multiple modality imaging that can provide a more accurate diagnosis of colon cancer.
