Combining endoscopy with optical coherence tomography (OCT) can improve the diagnosis in minimal invasive procedures. Up to now OCT probes were constructed using rotating or moving single-mode fibers or micro scanners at the tip of the probe. We describe an endoscopic OCT system which uses a specially designed rigid endoscope with an extracorporal scanner to create OCT images with 15 μm resolution. The OCT endoscope was constructed using a 270 mm gradient index lens with a diameter of 3 mm. Dispersion of the endoscope was compensated in the OCT interferometer by an all fiber approach. The system is now being tested for detecting malignancies in the urinary bladder.

Date Published: 1 July 2004
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 5316, Coherence Domain Optical Methods and Optical Coherence Tomography in Biomedicine VIII, (1 July 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.531312

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5316:
Coherence Domain Optical Methods and Optical Coherence Tomography in Biomedicine VIII
Valery V. Tuchin; Joseph A. Izatt; James G. Fujimoto, Editor(s)