Flexible wide-field optical micro-angiography based on Fourier-domain multiplexed dual-beam swept source optical coherence tomography.

Abstract

Wide-field optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is gaining interest in clinical imaging applications. In this pursuit, it is challenging to maintain the imaging resolution and sensitivity throughout the wide field of view (FoV). Here, we propose a novel method/system of dual-beam arrangement and Fourier-domain multiplexing to achieve wide-field OCTA when imaging the uneven surface samples. The proposed system provides 2 separate FoVs, with flexibility that the imaging area, focus of the imaging beam and imaging depth range can be individually adjusted for each FoV, leading to either (1) increased system imaging FoV or (2) capability of targeting 2 regions of interests that locate at depths with large difference between each other. We demonstrate this novel method by employing 100 kHz laser source in a swept source OCTA to achieve an effective 200 kHz sweeping rate, covering a 22 × 22 mm FoV. The results are verified by a SS-OCTA system employing a 200 kHz laser source, together with the experimental demonstrations when imaging whole brain vasculature in rodent models and skin blood perfusion in human fingers, show-casing the capability of proposed system to image live large samples with complex surface topography.