Towards advanced OCT clinical applications

In this paper we report on our recent achievement in application of conventional and cross-polarization OCT (CP OCT) modalities for in vivo clinical diagnostics in different medical areas including gynecology, dermatology, and stomatology. In gynecology, CP OCT was employed for diagnosing fallopian tubes and cervix; in dermatology OCT for monitoring of treatment of psoriasis, scleroderma and atopic dermatitis; and in stomatology for diagnosis of oral diseases. For all considered application, we propose and develop different image processing methods which enhance the diagnostic value of the technique. In particular, we use histogram analysis, Fourier analysis and neural networks, thus calculating different tissue characteristics as revealed by OCT’s polarization evolution. These approaches enable improved OCT image quantification and increase its resultant diagnostic accuracy.