Performance improvement by a broadband super-luminescent diode light source in 1.7-μm spectroscopic spectral-domain optical coherence tomography for lipid distribution imaging in a coronary artery

Abstract

We develop a 1.7-μm optical coherence tomography (OCT) system using a broadband light source based on superluminescent diodes (SLDs) and investigated the possibility of plaque detection by a spectroscopic OCT (S-OCT) method. The SLD-based light source realizes an output power about 20mW and a 3-dB bandwidth over 120nm for optimization of driving current in each SLD. Regarding performance of the 1.7-μm spectral-domain OCT system with the light source, the system sensitivity is 104dB in maximum at the A-scan rate of 47kHz, which is fifty times as high as that in the previous study with a super-continuum light source. Moreover, we perform visualization of lipid distribution at the A-scan frame of 47kHz by an in-vitro artery model which is made of a piece of porcine coronary artery and a lardfilled nylon tube as a plaque phantom. We confirm that the sensitivity and specificity between artery and plaque area in optimal condition for lipid detection at a specific frame image is over 90% and there are high lipid scores at the inside of plaque phantom in other frame images at the same condition. It indicates the possibility of plaque detection in intravascular OCT.