Patent ID: 8777412

Claim:
A method of optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging in conjunction with a surgical procedure, the method comprising: acquiring two or more images with a Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (FDOCT) imaging system, wherein the FDOCT imaging system comprises a broadband optical source and a detection module that samples a spectral interferogram at a spectral sampling interval that is greater than zero and less than a total bandwidth of the optical source, visualizing a first region of interest, wherein the detection module samples the spectral interferogram at a spectral sampling interval v 1 greater than zero and less than the total bandwidth of the optical source and wherein a maximum observable image depth z 1 is inversely proportional to the spectral sampling interval v 1 ; and visualizing a second region of interest with the FDOCT imaging system, wherein the detection module samples the spectral m at a spectral sampling interval v 2 , wherein v 2 is greater than or equal to 2v 1 , and wherein a maximum observable depth z 2 is inversely proportional to the spectral sampling interval v 2 and less than z 1 .