Abstract
Optical microangiography based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) is prone to noise that arises from a static tissue region. Here, we propose a method that can significantly reduce this noise. The method is developed based on an approach that uses the magnitude information of OCT signals to produce tissue microangiograms, especially suitable for the case where a swept-source OCT system is deployed. By combined use of two existing OCT microangiography methods-ultrahigh-sensitive optical microangiography (UHS-OMAG) and correlation mapping OCT (cmOCT)-the final tissue microangiogram is generated by masking UHS-OMAG image using the binary representation of cmOCT image. We find that this process masks the residual static artifacts while preserving the vessel structures. The noise rejection capability of the masked approach (termed as mOMAG) is tested on a tissue-like flow phantom as well as an in vivo human skin tissue. Compared to UHS-OMAG and cmOCT, we demonstrate that the proposed method is capable of achieving improved signal-to-noise ratio in providing microcirculation images. Finally, we show its clinical potential by quantitatively assessing the vascular difference between a burn scar and a normal skin of human subject in vivo.
Highlights
Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) is a well-established optical modality for noninvasive threedimensional (3-D) imaging of biological tissues.[1]
The noise and reflection are less pronounced in the correlation mapping OCT (cmOCT) image [Fig. 2(c)], whereas the decorrelation signals due to the low structural intensity region are observed in the image
Strong decorrelation signals (4,5,6) comparable to the flow signal in the tube are evident at the low-intensity structural regions in the cmOCT profile, whereas the signals at these regions are much weaker than the flow signal in the tube in the UHS-optical microangiography (OMAG) profile [Fig. 2(g)]
Summary
Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) is a well-established optical modality for noninvasive threedimensional (3-D) imaging of biological tissues.[1] Real-time, high-sensitivity, micrometer-resolution imaging of FD-OCT has extended its application to various biomedical research fields.[2,3,4] Recently, a functional variation of FD-OCT has allowed for tissue microangiography, i.e., optical microangiography (OMAG) or OCT microangiography.[5] The OCT microangiography measures the changes in amplitude (or intensity),[6,7,8,9] phase,[10,11,12,13] or complex value[5,14,15,16,17] of the OCT signals resulting from the dynamic scattering of the red blood cells in functional vessels relative to the static scattering of surrounding tissues, which serves as an endogenous contrast to decouple the moving blood from the static tissues This approach is able to provide depth-resolved microangiograms with a capillary-level resolution (∼10 μm), delineating the 3-D microvessel network in the tissue bed.[14].
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