Abstract

We describe a new medical imaging diagnostic technique for performing micron-scale cross-sectional imaging called optical coherence tomography (OCT).^1,2 In OCT, low-coherence interferometry is used to measure internal microstructure in biological tissues by performing highresolution optical ranging of reflected or backscattered light.^3,4 Imaging of the internal microstructure of biological specimens may be performed by transverse scanning the incident optical ranging beam to generate a two-dimensional fase color or gray scale image. Cross-sectional images may be obtained in tissues in the x-z plane by measuring the depth of reflections versus transverse position. OCT may also be used in scattering tissues to obtain cross-sectional images in the x-y plane.

© 1994 IEEE