Investigation of middle ear anatomy and function with combined video otoscopy-phase sensitive OCT.

We report the development of a novel otoscopy probe for assessing middle ear anatomy and function. Video imaging and phase-sensitive optical coherence tomography are combined within the same optical path. A sound stimuli channel is incorporated as well to study middle ear function. Thus, besides visualizing the morphology of the middle ear, the vibration amplitude and frequency of the eardrum and ossicles are retrieved as well. Preliminary testing on cadaveric human temporal bone models has demonstrated the capability of this instrument for retrieving middle ear anatomy with micron scale resolution, as well as the vibration of the tympanic membrane and ossicles with sub-nm resolution.