Fundamentals of optical coherence tomography: a critical review

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to go through fundamentals, mechanism and types of the state of the art emerging imaging modality i.e. optical coherence tomography (OCT) for non-invasive 3D imaging of bio tissues. This work consists of literature studied critically for OCT’s contribution in axial scanning of bio tissues with it different types to the best of our knowledge. Doppler optical coherence tomography (D-OCT) and speckle variance optical coherence tomography (SV-OCT) for blood flow assessment and blood microvasculatures on micron-scale resolution with dorsal skin-fold window chamber model (WCM) of mouse, Fourier domain common path (FD-CP-OCT) for applications in the setting of delicate microsurgical procedures such as intraocular retinal surgery have been explored. We conclude that OCT is the promised imaging modality in 3D regime for non-invasive applications.