Spectroscopic Optical Coherence Tomography (SOCT)

Spectroscopic optical coherence tomography allows for a more comprehensive assessment of tissues without additional necessary hardware. By isolating narrowband regions of an OCT interferogram, the localized contributions to the overall signal at discrete wavelength points can be determined to assess the wavelength-dependent behavior of the tissue. This allows for the extraction of optical properties such as scattering power or attenuation coefficient which can be used to classify tissue in a variety of applications. Previously, we have used SOCT to identify burned and healthy regions of tissue in a mouse model in vivo with high accuracy, as well as to determine blood oxygenation in conjunction with exogenous contrast agents. Recently, our group has used spectroscopic OCT to assess the disease state of colon tissue in a mouse model and is doing ongoing work to spectroscopically classify adenomas of varying severity.