In vivo imaging of human oral hard and soft tissues by polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography.

Julia Walther,Tobias Rosenauer,Christian Hannig,Jonas Golde,Franz Hempel,Florian Tetschke,Lars Kirsten,Edmund Koch

doi:10.1117/1.jbo.22.12.121717

Julia Walther, Tobias Rosenauer + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.1117/1.jbo.22.12.121717

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Abstract

Since optical coherence tomography (OCT) provides three-dimensional high-resolution images of biological tissue, the benefit of polarization contrast in the field of dentistry is highlighted in this study. Polarization-sensitive OCT (PS OCT) with phase-sensitive recording is used for imaging dental and mucosal tissues in the human oral cavity in vivo. An enhanced polarization contrast of oral structures is reached by analyzing the signals of the co- and crosspolarized channels of the swept source PS OCT system quantitatively with respect to reflectivity, retardation, optic axis orientation, and depolarization. The calculation of these polarization parameters enables a high tissue-specific contrast imaging for the detailed physical interpretation of human oral hard and soft tissues. For the proof-of-principle, imaging of composite restorations and mineralization defects at premolars as well as gingival, lingual, and labial oral mucosa was performed in vivo within the anterior oral cavity. The achieved contrast-enhanced results of the investigated human oral tissues by means of polarization-sensitive imaging are evaluated by the comparison with conventional intensity-based OCT.

Highlights

Various biological tissues change the polarization of light, for which reason tissue polarization properties can be important for the diagnosis of pathological alterations in tendons, bones, cartilages, teeth, and skin
Based on the simplicity of a single circular input state and the amount of information for physical interpretation of tissues by phasesensitive PS optical coherence tomography (OCT), we propose to image birefringent oral hard and soft tissues with circularly polarized light[44] in combination with the analysis of reflectivity, retardation, optic axis orientation,[12] and depolarization[13,14] as advanced calculation of polarization contrast in polarization-sensitive OCT (PS OCT) today
Chen et al have concluded that the reason for the polarization behavior of dental structures imaged by PS OCT with circularly polarized light is caused by different polarization mechanics.[45]

Summary

Introduction

Various biological tissues change the polarization of light, for which reason tissue polarization properties can be important for the diagnosis of pathological alterations in tendons, bones, cartilages, teeth, and skin. Because optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a prospective noninvasive imaging technique for three-dimensional high-resolution imaging of subsurface tissue morphology[1,2,3,4] with the possibility of functional imaging by polarization-sensitive OCT (PS OCT), it is attractive for depth-resolved tissue-specific contrast imaging with high speed and sensitivity in vivo. By detecting the polarization change of the reflected light with PS OCT, properties of polarization changing microstructures can provide information of early pathological alterations before morphological tissue remodeling occurs in larger scale detectable with intensity-based OCT.[5,6]

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