Optical Doppler tomography

Optical Doppler tomography (ODT) is an imaging modality that takes advantag e of the short coherence length of a broad-band light sources to perform mi crometer-scale, cross-sectional imaging of tissue structure and blood flow dynamics simultaneously. We review in this paper the principal of ODT and i ts applications. Results from in vitro and in vivo model studies demonstrat ed that ODT can map the blood flow velocity profile with high spatial resol ution in scattering medium. ODT detection mechanisms are illustrated using Monte Carlo simulations. The application of ODT to image brain hemodynamics is demonstrated, Finally, we discuss the limitations of the current techno logy and application of a phase resolved technique to improve image speed a nd quality.