Towards Practical Endoscopic Mass Spectrometry.

In this paper, we briefly review the remote mass spectrometric techniques that are viable to perform "endoscopic mass spectrometry," i.e., in-situ and in-vivo MS analysis inside the cavity of human or animal body. We also report our experience with a moving string sampling probe for the remote sample collection and the transportation of adhered sample to an ion source near the mass spectrometer. With a miniaturization of the probe, the method described here has the potential to be fit directly into a medical endoscope.