OPTICAL BIOPSY IN HUMAN GASTROINTESTINAL TISSUE USING OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY

Objectives: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a new technique for performing high-resolution, cross-sectional tomographic imaging in hum an tissue, OCT is somewhat analogous to ultrasound B mode imaging exce pt that it uses light rather than acoustical waves. OCT has over 10 ti mes the resolution of currently available clinical high-resolution ima ging technologies, In this work, we investigate the capability of OCT to differentiate the architectural morphology of gastrointestinal tiss ue with the long-term objective of extending OCT to endoscopic based d iagnostics, Methods: Normal and diseased gastrointestinal tissues were taken postmortem and imaged using OCT, Images were compared with corr esponding histology to confirm tissue identity and suggest the mechani sms that produce tissue contrast. Results: Microstructure was delineat ed in different tissues, including the esophagus and colon, at 16 +/- 1 mu m resolution, higher than any clinically available cross-sectiona l imaging technology, Differentiation of tissue layers, such as the mu cosa, submucosa, and muscularis were achieved because of their differe nt optical properties, Conclusions: The ability of OCT to provide high -resolution in situ imaging of gastrointestinal microstructure, withou t the need for excisional biopsy, suggests the feasibility of using OC T as a powerful diagnostic imaging technology, which can be integrated with conventional endoscopy.