Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a high-resolution imaging modality that uses backscattered light to produce cross-sectional images of biological tissue with micrometer resolution. The first publication using the term OCT appeared in 1991 and arose as a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. The high-spatial resolution makes it an optimal modality for imaging pathologies which affect individual tissue layers and evaluating microfeatures of therapeutic devices. The first in vivo application of OCT was the imaging of the anterior segment of the human eye, an ideal target for this technology since the transparency of the ocular media allows for noninvasive imaging of important eye structures, such as the cornea and the retina. A few years later, the integration of fiber optic technologies into OCT systems enabled the development of intravascular imaging catheters for the in vivo visualization of coronary arteries and in situ stents in high resolution.