<title>Medical applications of holography</title>

Abstract

From the various capabilities of holography for image processing and measuring purposes, holographic interferometric techniques have found more extended application in biological and medical research. Due to their special properties the different methods of holographic interferometry are applied to characteristic fields of biomedical investigations where--similar to nondestructive testing--vibration and deformation analysis is of interest. Features of holographic interferometry, such as the possibility of noncontactive, three-dimensional investigations with a large field-of-depth, are used with advantage. The main applications can be found in basic research e.g., in audiology, dentistry, opthalmology, and experimental orthopedics. Because of the great number of investigations and the variety of medical domains in which these investigations were performed this survey is confined to some characteristic examples. As in all fields of optics and laser metrology, a review on biomedical applications of holography would be incomplete if military developments and utilization were not mentioned. As demonstrated by selected examples, the increasing interlacing of science with the military does not stop at domains that traditionally are regarded as exclusively oriented to human welfare--like biomedical research. The term ''Star Wars Medicine'', which becomes an increasingly popular expression for laser applications (including holography) in medicine, characterizes the consequences of this development.