Imaging Spinal Structures With Polarization-Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

We investigate polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) to obtain both intensity and polarization contrast images of in vivo and ex vivo spinal structures like subcutaneous fat, supraspinous ligament, interspinous ligament, ligamentum flavum, dura, and spinal cord in a piglet model. The PS-OCT can provide enhanced contrast characteristic structures compared to the intensity OCT; therefore it has the potential for guidance in spine interventional procedures.

Keywords

• Coherence imaging
• medical photonics instrumentation
• optical coherence tomography.