4D microscopic optical coherence tomography imaging of ex vivo mucus transport

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) with microscopic resolution is suited for the investigation of dynamic processes on cellular level. Most existing setups for microscopic OCT (mOCT) are able to acquire A-Scans at 100 kHz, hence they are suitable for displaying only B-Scans in real-time. We present an mOCT setup with a new high-speed spectrometer, which is capable of acquiring up to 600.000 A-scans/s. Customized software allows to image mOCT volumes with micrometer resolution at video rate. Therefore, we are able to visualize functional processes on a cellular level in three dimensions over time. Here, we present 2D and 4D data of ex vivo human lung. Recording tens of high-resolution OCT volumes per seconds becomes possible faster than previous setup for OCT with microscopic resolution.