Multimodal imaging with integrated auto-fluorescence and optical coherence tomography for identification of neck tissues.

We report a multimodal optical system by combining OCT with autofluorescence imaging for identifying neck tissues, which can use the advantages of large field of view and high sensitivity for identifying parathyroid glands of fluorescence imaging, and high-resolution structural imaging of OCT to confirm them and identify lymph nodes and metastatic lymph nodes at the same time. It is proven that this multimodal optical system can be used to identify different neck tissues effectively and efficiently. We think that integrated auto-fluorescence and OCT imaging have the great potential in the application of navigation and assistant diagnosis of thyroid surgery.