METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONCOMITANT STRUCTURAL AND BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF TISSUE

摘要

An optical imaging apparatus and method for non-invasively sensing biochemical anomalies and morphological characteristics of a target tissue are provided. The method includes scanning the target tissue using the described optical imaging apparatus, detecting biological changes in the target tissue, and determining the health of the target tissue. In one embodiment, the optical imaging apparatus includes a spectroscopic imaging system, an OCT system, and an OCT/spectroscopic probe wherein the spectroscopic imaging system is optically coupled to the OCT/spectroscopic probe and the OCT imaging system is optically coupled to the OCT/spectroscopic probe.