. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Mar 1.

Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Cancer. 2008 Sep;8(9):725–731. doi: 10.1038/nrc2462

Table 2.

Overview of optical technologies being used for the detection of cervical cancer.

Technique	Spatial Resolution	Field of View	Depth	Sources of contrast	Cost	In clinical use?
Visual Inspection	100u-200u	Entire cervix	Surface	Induced change in scattering	$	Yes
Widefield Imaging	50-100μ	Entire cervix	Surface	Fuorescence: Collagen Reflectance: Hemaglobin absorption, Acetic acid induced change in scattering	$$-$$$	Yes
Spectroscopy	1mm	1mm	.3-1mm	Fuorescence: Collagen, NADH, FAD Reflectance: Hemaglobin absorption, morphologic changes, DNA content, chromatin texture	$$	No
High Resolution Imaging^*	1-2μm	<1mm	<1mm	Fluorescence: Fluorescently labeled probes Reflectance: Acetic acid induced change in scattering, morphologic changes, scattering coefficient	$$$	No

$, <$100; $$, $5,000-$30,000; $$$, >$30,000 (in U.S. Dollars)

Laser scanning confocal microscopy