Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a powerful label-free approach for volumetric morphological imaging, especially within biomedicine. However, the penetration depth of OCT is limited. We postulate that in OCT, multiple scattering can enhance image contrast at depth. We demonstrate this using spatially offset OCT (SO-OCT), an original collection geometry that leads to a preferential collection of multiply scattered light. SO-OCT images have improved contrast at depth, especially in highly scattering tissues. We show that by merging images from several offsets, we can generate a composite image with reduced speckle and improved contrast over a large depth range. Finally, we investigate opportunities for using SO-OCT to improve segmentation of tissues, an important step in image interpretation. Our results show the high potential of SO-OCT as a new tool in biomedical imaging and diagnosis.
|