Elasticity imaging with full field optical coherence microscopy

Abstract

It is important to detect disease early because this increases the probability of effective treatment. Elasticity measurements can help identify diseased tissue. Full Field Optical Coherence Microscopy (FFOCM) is a sensitive, high resolution, non-contact and non-invasive optical imaging modality that allows for depth sectioning in highly scattering media such as biological tissue. As a result, tissue elasticity can be determined as a function of depth. This thesis sets out to establish the fact that differences in tissue elasticity can be discerned with FFOCM. A home-made FFOCM system was built, characterized, and tested. Tissue phantoms were used along with plant cells. We show that FFOCM shows great potential in determining tissue elasticity.