Patent ID: 7406346

Claim:
An optical coherence tomography system for examining human or animal tissue or organs comprising: a catheter adapted for insertion into a body of a subject; a light source connected to the catheter that directs light, via the catheter, onto a region in the body of the subject, said catheter detecting light reflected from said body region; an evaluation unit supplied with said reflected light and with reference light that evaluates the reflected light and the reference light interferometrically to determine a two-dimensional cross-sectional view of said region; a position sensor disposed at a tip of the catheter; a position determining system that interacts with said position sensor to derive position data describing a current position of the position sensor in a coordinate system and to derive further position data describing a spatial distribution of a plurality of cross-sectional views of said region obtained as said catheter is moved in said body, said position determining system triggering obtaining the respective cross-sectional views in said plurality of cross-sectional views only if said position data indicate movement of said catheter by a predetermined spatial increment; and said evaluation unit deriving a three-dimensional view of said region from said plurality of two-dimensional cross-sectional views using said position data and said further position data.