Optical Coherence Microscopy For Columnar And Squamous Epithelium Discrimination: Potential And Clinical Applicability

Optical coherence microscopy (OCM) can deliver high resolution images of living, thick tissue samples. Should this method be able to distinguish between squamous and columnar epithelium, this would have implications on its qualification as a diagnostic tool for early stage metaplasia and Barrett's esophagus. Fresh esophageal and gastric epithelium taken from rats was imaged with OCM a few micrometers below the tissue surface. A discrimination between the epithelium types was possible from both the image morphology and the power spectral densities. Considerations on the design of an endoluminal OCM-applicator based on a micro-machined gimballed mirror will be discussed.