Compact hand-held probe for pressure sensitive OCT imaging and tissue topography reconstruction in intraoperative settings

New surgical paradigms require compact, real-time intraoperative diagnostics. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) offers high-resolution tissue imaging, and optical coherence elastography (OCE) shows promise for cancer detection. However, compact contact-based OCT systems often do not incorporate pressure sensing. To address this gap, we developed a novel, handheld OCT probe that simultaneously measures pressure and reconstructs 3D tissue topography. It uses a 1310 nm FDML swept source (2.5 kHz B-scan rate) for high-resolution imaging (10 µm axial/lateral). Combining a floating lens design with an electromagnetic tracking system has enabled pressure and position data integration for intraoperative use on large unstructured tissues.