What is Optical Coherence Tomography?
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive optical imaging technique. It uses low-power infrared laser light to image up to 2 mm beneath the skin surface. The clinician can obtain real-time images of the architecture of the skin without pre-treatment or gels.
Benefits of OCT imaging include differentiating abnormal from normal tissue in vivo, and monitoring the site after treatment of non-melanoma skin cancers.
How does OCT work?
OCT imaging is similar to ultrasound. In ultrasound it measures echo delays and creates A-scan images via interferomic analysis. In OCT, a light beam is directed at the area of interest in the skin, rather than sound or radio frequency.
Most light is not reflected from skin structures, but scatters off at large angles. In OCT, interferometry is used to record the optical path length of received photons, allowing rejection of background photons that scatter multiple times. Thus OCT can build up clear 3D images of thick samples by only collecting light that is directly reflected from surfaces of interest.
The mechanism of producing an OCT image is described here:
- A hand-held probe employs a low-intensity 1310 nm infrared laser to scan the tissue of interest.
- The probe captures light scattered from surfaces and features within the tissue.
- Inside the probe, captured light that has been scattered more than once is filtered out by an optical interferometer.
- The remaining light is detected and processed to produce an image with much greater depth penetration than confocal microscopy, and much higher resolution than ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
What is OCT used for?
The main uses are to evaluate and monitor:
- Skin tumours, primarily non-melanoma skin cancers.
- Inflammatory skin diseases.
- Fungal elements in nail infections.
- Various other skin changes.
- Effects of treatment.
Read Complete Article at The Skin Cancer Removal Technique Without Cutting
Also Read: Digital Transformation in Healthcare
 is a non-invasive optical imaging technique that uses low-power infrared laser light to image up to 2 mm){kind=link}