Research Topic · Peer-Reviewed

Optical Coherence Tomography

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging technique that produces high-resolution, cross-sectional and three-dimensional images of biological tissue by measuring the echo time delay and intensity of back-reflected light. It operates on the principle of low-coherence interferometry, comparing light…

Curated from this journal's research 📚 10 peer-reviewed articles cited Cited 123× across the literature 🔖 ISSN 2470-0436 🗓 Reviewed June 2026

Overview

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging technique that produces high-resolution, cross-sectional and three-dimensional images of biological tissue by measuring the echo time delay and intensity of back-reflected light. It operates on the principle of low-coherence interferometry, comparing light returning from the tissue with light traveling a reference path, to reconstruct depth-resolved images at micrometer-scale resolution without contact or ionizing radiation. In ophthalmology, where it is most widely used, OCT enables detailed visualization of the retina, macula, optic nerve head, and choroid, allowing clinicians to quantify retinal and ganglion cell layer thickness, detect fluid and structural changes, and characterize the choroid using spectral-domain and enhanced-depth imaging variants. These capabilities make OCT central to diagnosing and monitoring conditions such as macular edema, retinal vein occlusion, retinal detachment, choroidal inflammatory disease, and drug-related retinal changes, and to assessing the effect of treatments and surgery. OCT also supports evaluation of the macula before and after retinal procedures and the detection of subtle layer changes that may reflect systemic or neurodegenerative disease. Because it provides real-time, depth-resolved structural information that approaches histological detail in living tissue, OCT has become an essential tool in ophthalmic diagnosis, disease management, and research, and its underlying optical principles continue to be extended to imaging other tissues and to emerging diagnostic applications.

Research published in this journal

10 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.

How this research is being cited

The 10 articles above have been cited 123 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.

A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Optical Coherence Tomography, linking to each citing work.

Editorial oversight

Curated from peer-reviewed research published in Ophthalmic Science (ISSN 2470-0436).

Journal editorial board
Argyrios Tzamalis · GREECE Brian M. DeBroff · United States Emanuela Interlandi · Italy

This page summarises published research for orientation; it is not medical or professional advice.