ETD

• Intravascular Optical Coherence Tomography
• IVOCT
• Optical Imaging
• SALS
• Small Angle Light Scattering

The main purpose of this thesis is to find novel solutions for the characterization of biological soft tissues by menas of optical imaging methods, with a focus on the imaging of cardiovascular system. This aim has been achieved through i) development, validation and first experimentation of a novel setup based on small angle light scattering technique (SALS) for the in-vitro characterization of the fibrous microstructure of biological tissues; ii) implementation of novel methods for the improvement of the performance of actual intravascular optical coherence tomography (IVOCT) systems in terms of light penetration through the blood and signal acquisition speed.