Optical coherence tomography enables cross-sectional imaging of tissue structure to depths of around 1.5 mm, at high-resolution and in real-time. Incorporation of polarization-sensitivity enables the birefringent properties of tissues to be visualized and quantified. We present polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography images and quantitative birefringence analysis of in vivo human skin. From measurements on a sample of 5 human volunteers, mean double-pass phase retardation rates of 0.340 ± 0.143, 0.250 ± 0.076 and 0.592 ± 0.142°/μm were obtained for normal skin at the dorsal hand, temple and lower back regions respectively. Compared to these values measured in normal skin, a reduction in birefringence was observed and quantified in human skin following thermal injury. Conversely, increased birefringence was consistently measured at skin sites following wound healing and repair.
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