Conventional wisdom on tissue imaging turned on its head
An international team of experts has made a technological breakthrough for one of the most important forms of imaging: optical coherence tomography (OCT). They believe that selective collection of multiple scattered light may lead to improved image contrast at depth.
The team from the University of Adelaide, Australia, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the University of St Andrews, Scotland and Aerospace Corp., USA, has challenged conventional wisdom which says that an OCT signal is dominated by light and has undergone a single backscattering event, whereas light scattered (scrambled) many times is detrimental to image formation.
The team discovered an alternative viewpoint – that selective collection of multiple scattered light can lead to improved image contrast at depth, particularly in highly scattering samples. Importantly they showed how this could be implemented with minimal additional optics by displacing the light delivery and collection paths.
The use of light in biomedical imaging has reached new heights in the last decade with its unprecedented combination of simplicity, ease of use to recover highly resolved image information and versatility.
Professor Kishan Dholakia from the University of Adelaide and the University of St Andrews, Scotland said: “Our study breaks norms in optical imaging and I believe heralds a new path to recovering information at depth. OCT is a world established method to gain useful information on human health – our approach can enhance this even further.”