<title>Birefringence characterization of biological tissue using optical coherence tomography</title>

A polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (OCT) system is developed and used to measure birefringence in porcine myocardium tissue, producing 2-D cross-sectional images of the tissue birefringence. These birefringence images are then used to quantify thermal damage in the tissue. Signal to noise issues which cause systematic measurement errors are analyzed to determine the regime in which such measurements are accurate. The advantage of polarization sensitive OCT systems over standard OCT systems in avoiding image artifacts caused by birefringence is also demonstrated.