Skip to main content

OCT: deeper views, enhanced ability to help

By

(Image: MIT.)
In a newsletter post today titled "OCT gets deep," optics.org Editor Mike Hatcher heralds some important developments for physicians and their patients:


"Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has come a long way since its early development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). But there has always been one key limitation of the technique: its inability to image at depths of more than a couple of millimeters.

"But that now looks set to change, thanks to OCT systems based around lasers with tunable, narrow linewidths and long coherence lengths. So whereas physicians currently use OCT to look at just the retina, they could soon be using it to sweep through the entire structure of the eye.

"Clinical development of such systems will inevitably take time, but last week also saw a new OCT system for cardiovascular imaging launched in Japan. In combination with a non-optical technique, the system designed by St. Jude Medical uses OCT to offer heart surgeons an enhanced, three-dimensional view of the coronary arteries of their patients.

Rox Anderson, left, thanks his fellow biomedical optics
professionals for their work in helping meet health challenges,
as he and Jim Fujimoto open the Hot Topics session at SPIE
Photonics West in January 2013. (SPIE photo.)
"That technology has its roots very much in the MIT laboratory of OCT pioneer Jim Fujimoto, after St. Jude acquired the spin-out company LightLab Imaging a couple of years back.

"Now with the ability to image at much greater depths, the application potential of OCT looks set to enter a new dimension."


Rox Anderson of Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, who serves along with Fujimoto as symposium chair of Biomedical Optics at Photonics West, opened this year's Hot Topics session thanking the several hundreds of people in the audience for their work in applying biomedical optics "to help." This latest news is yet another example of that important work.

Want to know more? Hear about OCT applications and funding from Fujimoto, entrepreneur Eric Swanson, and researchers Melissa Suter (Massachusetts General Hospital) and Rainer Leitgeb (Medical University of Vienna) in a brief  brief SPIE Newsroom video.

And check out these presentations from several of this year's Hot Topics speakers:

  • Ernst Bamberg (Max Planck Institute)
  • Ben Potsaid (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
  • Dan Oron (Weizmann Institute of Science)
  • Jonathan Sorger (Intuitive Surgical, Inc)
  • Mathias Fink (Institut ESPCI, CNRS)
  • Joe Culver (Washington Univ. in St. Louis)

    • Labels

    Labels:

    Comments

    Post a Comment

    Popular posts from this blog

    An International Inspiration: Attending the International Day of Light 2019 Celebration in Trieste

    By
    John Dudley and Perla Viera in Trieste Perla Marlene Viera González, an SPIE Early Career Professional Member working at the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, represented the SPIE Student and ECP Membership at the International Day of Light 2019 celebration in Trieste, 16 May. She shares with this community her experiences at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and the impact of taking part in this annual day of recognizing light. The International Day of Light brings together culture and science.  — SPIE John Dudley, Steering Committee Chair of IDL This phrase was part of the message given by John Dudley during the introduction to the International Day of Light 2019 at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. And it reflects the importance of bringing together the science, technology, culture, and art that involves light in this emblematic celebration. This year, the IDL celebration was about “Illuminating Ed...
    Post a Comment
    Read more

    Ten Ways to Celebrate the first International Day of Light

    By
    The first International Day of Light (IDL) is less than a month away. A global initiative highlighting the importance of light and light-based technologies, communities around the world are planning events celebrating IDL on 16 May. First Place Winner of the 2017 SPIE IDL Photo Contest SPIE will participate in outreach events local to our community in Bellingham, Washington, attend the inauguration in Paris, France, and host an IDL reception for our conference attendees at SPIE Optical Systems Design in Frankfurt, Germany taking place May 14-17. SPIE is also supporting local events in 13 different communities from the US to India, Canada to South Africa, who were awarded SPIE IDL Micro Grants to create activities that highlight the critical role light plays in our daily lives. Do you need some ideas on how to show your appreciation of light on the 16th? Here is our top ten list of ways you can celebrate IDL 2018: 1. Throw a Celebration:  Light up your party with ligh...
    Post a Comment
    Read more

    Optics Does That? With Dr. Ashleigh Haruda, Zooarchaeologist.

    By
    Dr. Ashleigh Haruda is a zooarchaeologist. Dr. Ashleigh Haruda She examines animal bones found at archaeological sites to investigate the relationship between animals and ancient human societies. These bones reveal information about ancient societies including diet, trade, migration, and market forces. For her doctoral research, she studied pastoralists living in the Central Asian steppe in the Late and Final Bronze Age (1500-800 B.C.E.). These were people who did not practice agriculture, but lived off of their animals, including sheep. “Primarily these people are experiencing their world and their landscape through their animals,” said Haruda. “So, if they fail to move their animals in the right way, or they fail to understand how the weather is going to be that year, they could all die because there was no safety net for them.” By measuring the bones of sheep found in the steppe from the Final Bronze Age, she was able to determine that these pastoralists did not migrate exte...
    Post a Comment
    Read more