Optical coherence tomography of the middle ear

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an emerging modality for imaging the middle ear. It*allows middle ear structures and their response to sound to be imaged through the intact*eardrum. This technology represents an exciting new direction in the diagnosis of conductive*hearing loss, an area which to date has largely had to be done "blind" due to the inadequacy*of available imaging technologies. As the first research group to demonstrate clinical OCT*imaging of the whole middle ear and middle ear vibrometry in vivo, we are well placed to*advance this technology and have proposed a multi-faceted research plan to improve and*clinically validate our prototype imaging system. We will be re-engineering our OCT system*into an endoscopic form factor, adding new contrast mechanisms and working to improve*image quality. These improvements will harness many new advances in OCT imaging*technology including synthetic aperture focusing, compressed sensing, polarization-sensitive*OCT and variance-based microangiography, none of which have been used before in the ear.*Our efforts to improve the engineering in our clinical system will be complemented by the*construction of a preclinical OCT system specifically designed for measurements on human*temporal bones, the most important model for pre-clinical validation of middle ear therapies.*On the clinical side we will be pursuing both quantitative and qualitative patient research at*two sites to determine the technology's effectiveness in providing useful diagnostic*information for patients suffering from conductive hearing loss. Our collaborators include*world-leading experts in middle ear mechanics and disease from the US and Canada. Over*the entire course of the project we will work closely with our Knowledge Translation partner,*Conavi Medical, to move the device towards regulatory approval and onto the market, with*the results of clinical research and engineering informing the ultimate device design and use.