Application of optical coherence tomography in clinical diagnosis

Abstract

Background: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive diagnosing tool used in clinics. Due to its high resolution (<10um), it is appropriate for the early detection of tiny infections. It has been widely used in diagnosis and treatment of diseases, evaluation of therapeutic efficacy, and monitoring of various physiological and pathological processes.

Objective: To systemically review literature to summarize the clinic application of OCT in recent years.

Methods: For clinic applications that OCT has been applied, we selected studies that describe the most relevant works. The discussion included: 1) which tissue could be used in the OCT detection, 2) which character of different tissue could be used as diagnosing criteria, 3) which diseases and pathological process have been diagnosed or monitored using OCT imaging, and 4) the recent development of clinic OCT diagnosing.

Results: The literature showed that the OCT had been listed as a routine test choice for ophthalmic diseases, while the first commercial product for cardiovascular OCT detection had gotten clearance. Meanwhile, as the development of commercial benchtop OCT equipment and tiny fiber probe, the commercial application of OCT in dermatology, dentistry, gastroenterology and urology also had great potential in the near future.

Conclusions: The analysis and discussions showed that OCT, as an optical diagnosing method, has been used successfully in many clinical fields, and has the potential to be a standard inspection method in several clinic fields, such as dermatology, dentistry and cardiovascular.

Keywords: Optical coherence tomography (OCT); clinical application of OCT.

Fig.1

Demonstration of several OCT modalities: (a) Time-domain OCT (b) Spectral-domain OCT (c) Swept source OCT.

Fig.2

SD-OCT (a) and OCTA (b-d) images of a patient with diabetic macular edema before (top) and after (bottom) intravitreal dexamethasone implant [18]. (Used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license)

Fig.3

The postimplantation OCT image [22]. (Used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license)

Fig.4

3D and 2D OCT images of glans penis carcinoma, showing horny layer (*), thickened epidermal layer (#) and a blood vessel (•) [29]. (Used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 License)

Fig.5

OCT image of a healthy bladder wall indicating urothelium (U), intact lamina propria (LP) and muscularis (M) [56]. (Used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license)

Fig.6

The 3D OCT images of Barrett’s esophagus after radiofrequency ablation [44]. (Used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license)

Fig.7

The OCT images of healthy, partially demineralized, and completely demineralized (carious) molar tooth samples [51]. (Used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license)