Optical Biopsy in Human Pancreatobiliary Tissue Using Optical Coherence Tomography

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a newtechnique for performing high-resolution,cross-sectional tomographic imaging in human tissue. OCTis analogous to ultrasound B mode imaging except that ituses light rather than acoustical waves. As aresult, OCT has over 10 times the resolution ofcurrently available clinical high-resolutioncross-sectional imaging technologies. In this work, weinvestigate the capability of OCT to differentiate thearchitectural morphology of pancreatobiliary tissues.Normal pancreatobiliary tissues, including thegallbladder, common bile duct, pancreatic duct, andpancreas were taken postmortem and imaged using OCT. Imageswere compared to corresponding histology to confirmtissue identity. Microstructure was delineated indifferent tissues, including tissue layers, glands,submucosal microvasculature, and pancreatic islets ofLangerhans. The ability of OCT to providehigh-resolution imaging of pancreatobiliaryarchitectural morphology suggests the feasibility ofusing OCT as a powerful diagnostic endoscopic imaging technology toimage early stages of pancreatobiliarydisease.