Recent Trends in Multimodal Optical Coherence Tomography. II. The Correlation-Stability Approach in OCT Elastography and Methods for Visualization of Microcirculation

Abstract

The second part of this paper continues the discussion of possibilities for combining functionally different types of biomedical characterization of tissues using optical coherence tomography (OCT). In the first part, polarization-sensitive imaging and conventional approaches to elastographic mapping in OCT were considered. Here, we consider an unconventional approach to elastographic mapping based on the analysis of variability of OCT images of the deformed tissue, omitting the stage of the displacement-field reconstruction. We also discuss methods for quantification of blood flow and visualization of microvasculature, some of which have much in common with the elastographic approach based on the analysis of temporal variability of OCT frames. This similarity looks especially promising in the context of combining multiple contrast mechanisms to enable prospective multimodal OCT scanners, as is essential for biomedical progress given the complex and heterogeneous nature of real biological tissues.