TABLE OF CONTENTS Optical coherence tomography (OCT) may be described as the extension of low-coherence interferometry to tomographic imaging. It has been primarily directed towards in vivo imaging through thick biological sections, and in particular tissues in the human body, including the eye, gastrointestinal tract, and cardiovascular system. OCT's penetration of highly scattering tissues is limited to a few millimetres, which is lower than ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, and X-ray computed tomography, but its resolution for in vivo imaging is higher than these modalities, routinely at around 10 ?m, which is sufficient to display clinically relevant morphology, and potentially around 1 ?m. After more than a decade of research, OCT is in the early phases of establishing a niche as a medical imaging technology for routine clinical use. In this chapter, we briefly present the early development of OCT in the context of related optical technologies before concentrating primarily on the basic principles of OCT imaging, including the effects of dispersion, noise, and multiple scattering. Finally, we review a selection of the more prominent application areas.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) combines low-coherence interferometry with lateral point beam scanning to produce two- or three-dimensional images [ [1]]. The low temporal coherence is provided by broadband light and endows the technique with an axial optical sectioning capability - a coherence gate . This capability is similar to that provided by confocal microscopy but the coherence gate does not depend on the aperture of the optical system. OCT has...
