Abstract
OCT has been demonstrated as an efficient imaging modality in various biomedical and clinical applications. However, there is a missing link with respect to the source of contrast between OCT and other modern imaging modalities, no quantitative comparison has been demonstrated between them, yet. We evaluated, to our knowledge, for the first time in vivo OCT measurement of rat brain with our previously proposed forward imaging method by both qualitatively and quantitatively correlating OCT with the corresponding T1-weighted and T2-weighted magnetic resonance images, fiber density map (FDM), and two types of histology staining (cresyl violet and acetylcholinesterase AchE), respectively. Brain anatomical structures were identified and compared across OCT, MRI and histology imaging modalities. Noticeable resemblances corresponding to certain anatomical structures were found between OCT and other image profiles. Correlation was quantitatively assessed by estimating correlation coefficient (R) and mutual information (MI). Results show that the 1-D OCT measurements in regards to the intensity profile and estimated attenuation factor, do not have profound linear correlation with the other image modalities suggested from correlation coefficient estimation. However, findings in mutual information analysis demonstrate that there are markedly high MI values in OCT-MRI signals.
Highlights
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-ionising optical imaging modality introduced in the early 90’s [1, 2]
We evaluated in vivo OCT measurement of rat brain by correlating the attenuation factor and intensity profiles extracted from OCT measurements on the same trajectory with profiles from T1 and T2-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images, fiber density map (FDM), and histological images
In this study we report, to our best knowledge, the first quantitative evaluation of the in vivo OCT measurement of rat brain by correlating them with the corresponding magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signals and histological signals
Summary
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-ionising optical imaging modality introduced in the early 90’s [1, 2]. It utilises optical scattering properties of the tissue to generate an image where the contrast comes from differences in the optical reflectivity and backscattering of the tissue. Unglert et al have validated OCT measurements of alveolar size by correlating them with CT measurements quantitatively [15]. The demand for quantitatively evaluation of in vivo OCT measurements by correlating with other well-established imaging exists
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