Abstract
High-speed optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) has enabled practical wide-field microscopic imaging in the biological laboratory and clinical medicine. The imaging speed of OFDI, and therefore the field of view, of current systems is limited by the rate at which data can be digitized and archived rather than the system sensitivity or laser performance. One solution to this bottleneck is to natively digitize OFDI signals at reduced bit depths, e.g., at 8-bit depth rather than the conventional 12-14 bit depth, thereby reducing overall bandwidth. However, the implications of reduced bit-depth acquisition on image quality have not been studied. In this paper, we use simulations and empirical studies to evaluate the effects of reduced depth acquisition on OFDI image quality. We show that image acquisition at 8-bit depth allows high system sensitivity with only a minimal drop in the signal-to-noise ratio compared to higher bit-depth systems. Images of a human coronary artery acquired in vivo at 8-bit depth are presented and compared with images at higher bit-depth acquisition.
Highlights
Optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) [1], known as swept-source OCT [2], is a highresolution (~10 μm), cross-sectional, fiber-optic imaging method that is capable of measuring tissue microstructure, birefringence [3,4], and blood flow [5,6]
Since the interferometric ranging signal in OFDI is collected in the Fourier domain, high-speeds can be achieved while maintaining sufficient detection sensitivity [2,10, 11]
The relationship between imaging speed and the required digital throughput is determined by several factors, but the minimum necessary sampling rate is generally given by fA * N where fA is the A-line rate and N is the number of points per A-line
Summary
Optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) [1], known as swept-source OCT [2], is a highresolution (~10 μm), cross-sectional, fiber-optic imaging method that is capable of measuring tissue microstructure, birefringence [3,4], and blood flow [5,6]. Since the interferometric ranging signal in OFDI is collected in the Fourier domain, high-speeds can be achieved while maintaining sufficient detection sensitivity [2,10, 11]. With the advent of rapid-scanning wavelength-swept lasers [12,13,14,15], the speed of clinically-viable OFDI systems is currently limited by digital acquisition and storage capabilities. The relationship between imaging speed and the required digital throughput is determined by several factors, but the minimum necessary sampling rate is generally given by fA * N where fA is the A-line rate and N is the number of points per A-line. Polarization diversity or polarization-sensitivity is highly desirable for robust clinical systems and doubles the required digital throughput
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