Abstract
Blood coagulation is the clotting and subsequent dissolution of the clot following repair to the damaged tissue. However, inducing blood coagulation is difficult for some patients with homeostasis dysfunction or during surgery. In this study, we proposed a method to develop an integrated system that combines optical coherence tomography (OCT) and laser microsurgery for blood coagulation. Also, an algorithm for positioning of the treatment location from OCT images was developed. With OCT scanning, 2D/3D OCT images and angiography of tissue can be obtained simultaneously, enabling to noninvasively reconstruct the morphological and microvascular structures for real-time monitoring of changes in biological tissues during laser microsurgery. Instead of high-cost pulsed lasers, continuous-wave laser diodes (CW-LDs) with the central wavelengths of 450 nm and 532 nm are used for blood coagulation, corresponding to higher absorption coefficients of oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin. Experimental results showed that the location of laser exposure can be accurately controlled with the proposed approach of imaging-based feedback positioning. Moreover, blood coagulation can be efficiently induced by CW-LDs and the coagulation process can be monitored in real-time with OCT. This technology enables to potentially provide accurate positioning for laser microsurgery and control the laser exposure to avoid extra damage by real-time OCT imaging.
Highlights
Location and noninvasive monitoring of the treatment effect are important issues
We develop an optical coherence tomography (OCT)-guided laser microsurgery system for blood coagulation with Continuous-wave laser diodes (CW-LDs) which can efficiently reduce the system cost
The results showed that the areas of blood drops became smaller after laser exposure, indicating that leaked blood coagulated after the laser exposure for 3 s
Summary
Location and noninvasive monitoring of the treatment effect are important issues. To monitor the treatment effects and to improve the efficiencies of various treatment approaches, different imaging techniques has been intensively implemented such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)[10,11,12], fluorescence microscopy[13,14], confocal microscopy[15,16], multiphoton microscopy[17,18], laser speckle contrast imaging[19,20], and optical coherence tomography[21,22,23]. Microscopic techniques are difficult to probe the deeper structures and laser speckle contrast imaging is unable to provide depth-resolved information. In contrast to the above techniques, optical coherence tomography (OCT) can provide high resolutions (< 10 μ m) and achieve a deeper imaging depth (< 3 mm). The cross-correlation coefficients of adjacent OCT images at the same location are estimated to observe the blood leakage and the coagulation process. Such an OCT-guided laser microsurgery system could be a powerful tool for various clinical applications such as dermatology, ophthalmology, and liver and brain surgery
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