Enhanced optical coherence tomography for anatomical mapping

An apparatus for obtaining images of an object comprising:

• a spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) system, said system including a light source, a beam splitter for dividing the light along a sample path and a reference path, said sample path further including a scanner for scanning the light in at least one of the X and Y directions over the sample;
• a detector for receiving light returned from both the sample and the reference paths and generating a plurality of sets of outputs, each set corresponding to varying intensities at different wavelengths of said source at a particular X/Y position of said light on said sample, said intensities including information about the reflection distribution along the sample in the Z axis;
• and
• a processor for converting the outputs of each set of outputs into a 3-D data set including Z-axis intensity information for each X/Y position, said 3-D data sets being suitable for generating OCT cross-sectional images, said processor further for converting at least some of the 3-D data set into a single intensity value corresponding to the integrated intensity across at least a portion of the Z axis for the associated X/Y position of the light on the sample, said single intensity values being suitable for generating a two dimensional image intensity map of the object.

A method of generating intensity images of an object utilizing the output from a spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) system, said system including a scanner for scanning a light beam in at least one of the X and Y directions over the sample, said system being one of a swept source SD-OCT system and a spectrometer based SD-OCT system, said system generating a plurality of sets of outputs, each set corresponding to varying intensities at different wavelengths of said source at a particular X/Y position of said light on said sample, said intensities including information about the reflection distribution along the sample in the Z axis, said method comprising the steps of:

• converting the outputs of each set of outputs into a 3-D data set including Z-axis intensity information for each X/Y position, said 3-D data set being suitable for generating OCT cross-sectional images;
• converting at least some of the 3-D data set into a single intensity value corresponding to the integrated intensity across at least a portion of the Z axis for the associated X/Y position of the light on the sample;
• and
• generating a two dimensional image map of the integrated intensity values.

An apparatus for obtaining images of an object comprising:

• a spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) system, said system including a broad band light source, a beam splitter for dividing the light along a sample path and a reference path, said sample path further including a scanner for scanning the light in at least one of the X and Y directions onto the sample;
• a detector for receiving light returned from both the sample and the reference paths, said detector including a spectrometer and a line scan camera for generating a plurality of sets of outputs, each set corresponding to varying intensities at different wavelengths of said source at a particular X/Y position of said light on said sample, said intensities including information about the reflection distribution along the sample in the Z axis, said detector further including an auxiliary detector element for monitoring zero order light and generating an output corresponding to the integrated intensity in the Z axis for the associated X/Y position of the light on the sample;
• and
• a processor for converting each set of outputs from the line scan camera into a 3-D data set including Z-axis intensity information for each X/Y position, said 3-D data set being suitable for generating cross-sectional images, said processor for converting the outputs from the auxiliary detector element into a format suitable for generating a two dimensional image intensity map of the object.