Probe for localized tissue spectroscopy

A method of analyzing a target tissue by detection of a spectrographic signal of interest, such method comprising the steps of:

• placing a probe having a source and a detector in contact with the target tissue, wherein the probe includes a housing for holding apart the source and detector therein, the housing further including an illumination window for exposing a portion of the source and a detection window for exposing a portion of the detector, the windows being positioned on a side of the housing;
• setting a spacing between the source and detector for selectively interrogating a limited volume of the target tissue;
• illuminating the target tissue with light emitted from the source through the illumination window;
• and
• detecting light through the detection window with the detector, whereby the detected light provides information about the limited volume of target tissue,
• wherein the step of setting the spacing includes selecting the spacing based on a non-diffusion modeled interaction to probe a volume localized so as to preferentially detect the signal of interest.

A spectrographic probe for interrogating tissue to detect a signal of interest for spectrographic characterization, the probe comprising:

• a probe body including a housing configured for holding an illumination source and a light detector mounted therein, the housing further having an illumination window for exposing a portion of the illumination source and a detection window for exposing a portion of the detector, the windows being positioned on a side of the housing,
• the illumination source being positioned by the probe body for delivering light through the illumination window to a region of tissue,
• the detector being positioned by the probe body a predetermined spacing from the source for receiving light through the detection window from the region of tissue,
• wherein the predetermined spacing is a small spacing effective to limit light received by the detector to light from a tissue depth that preferentially contains the signal of interest, thereby enhancing accuracy of the spectrographic determination.