Lesson 6: OCT vs Ultrasound 3 Copy

Current OCT imaging technologies yield images that have approximately ten times higher resolution than standard ultrasound imaging.

The inherently high resolution of OCT permits the imaging of fine structures within the retina as well as the anterior eye. Thus facilitating the diagnosis of a wide range of clinically relevant pathologies.

The principal difference between ultrasonic and optical imaging is speed: the speed or velocity of propagation of light is nearly a million times faster than the speed of sound.

Since distances within the biological tissue are measured by measuring the “echo” time delay of reflected sound waves or light waves, this implies that distance measurement using light requires ultrafast time resolution.