The length of the “pendulum” represents the penetration depth while the diameter of the circle represents the spatial resolution of the imaging method. 1, when comparing imaging methods by their resolutions and imaging depths in tissues, OCT fills a niche located between optical microscopy methods (such as confocal and fluorescence) and ultrasound imaging.Ĭomparison of various imaging methods according to their resolutions and penetration depths. Since its conception, in the late 1980s, OCT was developed as a technique enabling high-resolution, real-time and in-situ imaging of tissue microstructure without the need for tissue excision and processing. OCT lies between the deep and the superficial imaging techniques conveying high spatial resolution at imaging depths of millimeters into tissue. Optical coherence tomography (OCT), a light interference-based optical technique, allows three-dimensional cross-sectional imaging within biological samples with a spatial resolution of 10 μm or less. Meanwhile, optical imaging methods such as conventional and confocal microscopy, fluorescence and multi-photon imaging have spatial resolutions of micrometers or better but cannot penetrate deep under the surface of biological samples. Despite their successes and further technical developments, these techniques are limited and for many applications negatively impacted by low spatial resolution under the best circumstances, the smallest details observable are in the range of half a millimeter. The impact in medicine of three-dimensional imaging technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), X-ray computed tomography, radioisotope imaging (PET and SPECT), ultrasound and diffuse optical tomography cannot be over-emphasized. In the last decades, new medical imaging technologies have radically improved not only the diagnosis and clinical management of various diseases but have also provided new opportunities for understanding the pathogenesis of various diseases and for the advancement of novel therapies and interventions. Together with the basic principles that lay behind the imaging method itself, this review provides a summary of the functional differences between time-domain, spectral-domain and full-field optical coherence tomography, a presentation of specific methods for processing the data acquired by these systems, an introduction to the noise sources that plague the detected signal and the progress made in optical coherence tomography catheter technology over the last decade. This review paper highlights the place occupied by optical coherence tomography in relation to other imaging methods that are used in medical and life science areas such as ophthalmology, cardiology, dentistry and gastrointestinal endoscopy. Using the rich information the book is replete with, a wide range of readers, from scientists and physicists to engineers as well as biomedical and clinical researchers, can get a handle on the latest major advances in FF-OCM.The advances made in the last two decades in interference technologies, optical instrumentation, catheter technology, optical detectors, speed of data acquisition and processing as well as light sources have facilitated the transformation of optical coherence tomography from an optical method used mainly in research laboratories into a valuable tool applied in various areas of medicine and health sciences. The last part of the book provides an overview of possible applications of FF-OCM in medicine, biology, and materials science.Ī comprehensive compilation of self-contained chapters written by leading experts, this handbook is a definitive guide to the theoretical analyses, technological developments, and applications of FF-OCM. Extensions of FF-OCM for image contrast enhancement or functional imaging are reported in part III. The main technological developments of FF-OCM for improving the image acquisition speed and for endoscopic imaging are presented in part II. After a general introduction to FF-OCM, the fundamental characteristics of the technology are analyzed and discussed theoretically. ![]() ![]() It is organized into four parts with a total of 21 chapters written by recognized experts and major contributors to the field. This handbook is the first to be entirely devoted to FF-OCM. The technique can be employed in diverse applications, in particular for noninvasive examination of biological tissues. FF-OCM benefits from the lateral imaging resolution of optical microscopy along with the capacity of optical axial sectioning at micrometer-scale resolution. The technology is based on low-coherence interference microscopy, which uses an area camera for en face imaging of the full-field illuminated object. Full-field optical coherence microscopy (FF-OCM) is an imaging technique that provides cross-sectional views of the subsurface microstructure of semitransparent objects.
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