Clinical Imaging

Portable OCT Systems

In order to introduce and fully utilize OCT in the clinical environment, significant engineering challenges must be addressed, including making the OCT system portable, making the acquisition software user-friendly, and making the beam-delivery systems compact and reliable. Recent advances in high speed OCT technology, coupled with miniaturization of beam delivery have made these portable systems feasible and more practical. We have and continue to develop portable OCT systems that are now routinely used in clinical settings such as the operating room, the procedure room, and the physician's office. Current our clinical systems enable high-resolution and real-time collection of 1-D, 2-D, or 3-D OCT data sets from animal and human tissues.

Portable clinical OCT systems (A, B) OCT system currently being used in operating rooms for the intraoperative assessment of tumor tissue during surgical resection. (C) LCI system for point of care diagnosis in middle ear. (D) OCT system having a versatile handheld imaging probe for primary care medicine.

LCI/OCT otoscopy

The enhanced otoscope was built by integrating LCI technique into a standard video otoscope to assist physicians in determining ear infection status. The video otoscope is used to guide the LCI beam to areas of interest on the tympanic membrane and also to record the locations of the LCI data. In addition, the LCI data provides quantitative information about the middle ear: the thickness of the eardrum, the growth process of bacterial biofilms, and the presence of effusion in the middle ears. This system is being used in clinic and acquiring human data.

Picture of the LCI/OCT otoscope system (a), design of LCI otoscope head (b,c), and sample otoscopy image (d) and LCI data of a human infected middle ear (e).

OCT ophthalmology

The OCT ophthamoscope enables one to visualize not only the surface of the anterior segment and retina of the eye, as a conventional ophthalmoscope does, but also cross-sectional structure using high speed OCT imaging technology. This instrument would permit new types of diagnostic data that can further improve the diagnostic accuracy and outcome of the initial patient visit.

Picture of the OCT ophthalmoscope system, its operation, and sample images of human retina and cornea.