光學同調斷層掃描術的臨床應用趨勢與挑戰

Clinical Trends and Challenges of Optical Coherence Tomography

光學同調斷層掃描術（optical coherence tomography，OCT）目前在眼科已成為標準的檢驗技術，每年影響上千萬病患的治療流程，而OCT的發明至今不到30年，對生技醫療領域而言，這麼短的時間，就取得如此成就，非常罕見。目前全球已有超過100家OCT公司，從事OCT技術與應用的開發，在應用面，由眼科、心臟科、皮膚科、腸胃科乃至神經外科，均已獲致大量的臨床及前臨床成果；而在技術面，OCT所需的寬頻光源及探頭亦進展快速，使得OCT的成像速度、解析度及探頭所能檢驗的組織種類均大幅提昇。在生物醫療領域，OCT是一個極佳的成功案例，本文將簡介OCT的原理、技術、應用及趨勢與挑戰，希冀對OCT有興趣的讀者有所指引，也希望對生醫影像的研發團隊有所啟發。
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was invented less than 30 years ago, and it has now become a standard of care impacting the treatment of millions of people every year. In biomedical field, it is rare to have such an achievement in such a short period of time. At present, there are more than 100 OCT companies worldwide dedicated to the development of clinical applications as well as technologies. Application wise, there are tremendous clinical and preclinical progresses in ophthalmology, cardiology, dermatology, gastroenterology, neurosurgery, etc. Technology wise, the OCT imaging speed, resolution, and functionality are advancing rapidly due to the breakthroughs in broadband light sources and various optical probes for reaching the deep and/or interior tissues and organs. In the biomedical field, OCT is a successful role model for medical devices. In this article, the basic principles, technologies, applications, as well as the trends and challenges are addressed. Hopefully, it could serve as a guideline for interested readers and inspire the medical image developing teams for making impacts.