Optical Coherence Tomography Signal Slope Research Articles

Nondestructive Early Detection of Bruising in Pear Fruit Using Optical Coherence Tomography

Pear fruit is susceptible to mechanical injury during harvesting, packaging, and transportation. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) can provide information concerning chemical and microstructural changes of fruit tissues. Therefore, using OCT to evaluate fruit quality is of great significance. In this study, OCT was used for early detection of subtle bruise symptoms underneath the pear peel. First, the signal intensity versus depth in relation to the OCT images of fruit tissue was determined, which was derived from the values of the OCT signal slope (OCTSS) and 1/e light penetration depth (D1/e). Furthermore, shaping (α) and scaling (β) indices were estimated by fitting a gamma distribution function to the signal intensity profile. After mechanical injury, OCTSS, α, and β decreased and the D1/e value increased. Distribution analysis of the relationship between α versus β served as an effective method to identify tissue bruising at an early stage. In conclusion, the results suggest that OCTSS, D1/e, and the α versus β distribution are closely correlated with bruise injury in pear fruit tissues. Thus, OCT is a promising technology for early and nondestructive bruise detection.

Noninvasive monitoring of blood glucose concentration in diabetic patients with optical coherence tomography

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been used to noninvasively monitor the blood glucose concentration (BGC) in healthy subjects with good accuracy and acceptable specificity. Based on this, the paper further considered the possibility of OCT in noninvasive monitoring BGC in diabetic patients. The OCT signal slope (OCTSS) changed with variation of BGC. The correlation coefficient R between BGC and OCTSS in diabetic patients was 0.91; while the correlation coefficient R in healthy volunteers was 0.78. Thus, a better linear dependence of OCTSS on BGC in diabetic patients was presented in the experiment. The results showed that the capability and accuracy of OCT in noninvasive monitoring BGC of diabetic patients, and the noninvasive monitoring BGC in diabetic patients may be better than the monitoring in the healthy subjects.

In vitro assessment of effects of hyperglycemia on the optical properties of blood during coagulation using optical coherence tomography.

No published reports have demonstrated the capability of the optical coherence tomography technique for quantifying the optical coherence tomography signal slope, 1/e light penetration depth, and attenuation coefficient of hyperglycemic blood by an in vitro assessment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of hyperglycemia on optical properties during in vitro blood coagulation by optical coherence tomography. Normal whole blood acted as the control group. After 1-h coagulation, the average optical coherence tomography signal slope decreased approximately 23.3 and 16.7%, and the 1/e light penetration depths increased approximately 21.5 and 19.2% for the control and hyperglycemic groups, respectively. It could be seen from the 1/e light penetration depth evolution curves that the blood coagulation time was about (425 ± 19) s for normal whole blood and (367 ± 15) s for the hyperglycemic blood. The coagulation time decreased 13.6% for the hyperglycemic blood compared with that for normal whole blood. There was statistically significant difference in blood coagulation time between the hyperglycemic and normal whole blood (p < 0.05). The results suggested that hyperglycemia has a procoagulant effect. Our experiment was the first reported study of monitoring hyperglycemic blood coagulation using OCT. We conclude that OCT is potential technique to quantify and follow the liquid-gel transition of hyperglycemic blood coagulation.

Characterization of Flowing Blood Optical Property Under Various Fibrinogen Levels Using Optical Coherence Tomography

The feasibility of characterization of human blood fibrinogen levels using optical coherence tomography (OCT) was investigated. Three groups of blood samples were reconstituted of red blood cells: 1) phosphate-buffered saline; 2) plasma with its intrinsic fibrinogen removed and commercial fibrinogen added; and 3) native plasma with various fibrinogen levels (0-12 g/L). OCT signal slope (OCTSS) of blood was extracted from OCT depth-reflectivity profiles. Effects of hematocrit (HCT) and blood flow on OCTSS of the blood under various fibrinogen concentrations were also studied. The results of blood flowing at 5 mm/s showed that OCTSS of all the three groups at HCT of 40% decreases with the increasing fibrinogen concentration up to a certain level, i. e., >8, 6, and 4 g/L for groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The blood of group 2 at HCTs of 30%, 40%, and 50% had a rapid decrease in OCTSS in the range of fibrinogen concentration of 0-2, 0-6, and 0-10 g/L, respectively. OCTSS value of blood flowing at 2.5 mm/s was lower than that at 5 mm/s at each fibrinogen concentration. In conclusion, OCTSS has a strong correlation with plasma fibrinogen concentration, and has the potential to identify the abnormal level of human blood fibrinogen.

Effects of optical clearing agents on noninvasive blood glucose monitoring with optical coherence tomography: a pilot study

Recently, the capability of optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been demonstrated for noninvasive blood glucose monitoring. In this work, we investigate the administration of chemical agents onto human skin tissue to increase the transparency of the surface of the skin, as a means of improving the capability of OCT imaging for clinically relevant applications. Eight groups of experiments were proposed, in which different optical clearing agents (OCA) were used. The results indicate that, when properly used, some OCAs perform well in promoting the capability of OCT for noninvasive blood glucose monitoring. Among the four kinds of OCA we used, 50% v/v glycerol solute turns out to be the best enhancer. Compared with the results of the experiments in which no OCA was used, when 50% glycerol was applied onto the human skin topically, the correlation coefficient between the OCT signal slope (OCTSS) and blood glucose concentration (BGC) was improved by 7.1% on average, and the lag time between changes in the OCTSS and BGC was cut by 8 min on average. The results of 10 w/v mannitol were also good, but not as pronounced.

Effects of structural orientation of enamel and dentine on light attenuation and local refractive index: An optical coherence tomography study

ObjectivesTo investigate optical properties of human enamel and dentine in relationship to structural orientation of enamel prisms and dentinal tubules by optical coherence tomography (OCT). MethodsDiscs of 300–400μm thickness including enamel with cross-cut or long-cut prisms and mid-coronal dentine with cross-cut, long-cut or oblique-cut tubules were obtained from 28 non-carious freshly extracted human third molars sectioned at different directions. Each disc was placed over a metal plate and B-scan images were obtained by a swept-source OCT at 1330nm centre wavelength (Dental SS-OCT Prototype 1, Panasonic Healthcare Co., Ltd, Japan). Refractive index (n) calculated from optical path length and real thickness, and OCT signal slope (OCTSS) in relation to structural orientation were statistically compared among groups (α=0.05). The discs were sectioned and observed under SEM to confirm prism or tubule orientations. ResultsNo significant differences were found in n and OCTSS among cross-cut and long-cut enamel groups (p>0.05). However, in dentine, there was a significant difference in both variables among different regions. In cross-cut tubule orientation, the average n and OCTSS values were significantly lower compared to other two groups (long-cut and oblique-cut) (p<0.05). There was a significant difference in both variables between enamel and dentine (p<0.05). ConclusionsUnlike enamel, refractive index and OCT signal patterns in dentine vary according to structural orientation, with dentine tubules playing the role. Attenuation of OCT signal intensity was small in enamel. The findings may contribute to a better understanding of the interactions of light with the dental tissue. Clinical significancePrecise records of refractive indices and OCT signal patterns may be important for clinical diagnosis of caries and measurement of structural depth for operative purposes using this technology. Effects of dentine structural orientation on refractive index and scattering pattern must be considered when observing human teeth by OCT cross-sectional imaging.

Quantification of Glucose Diffusion in Human Lung Tissues by Using Fourier Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

In this study, we report permeability coefficients of 30% glucose diffusion by the optical coherence tomography signal slope (OCTSS) method in four kinds of human lung tissue in vitro: normal lung tissue, benign granulomatosis lung tissue, squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma tumor. To quantify the permeability coefficient of the agent, the monitored region was 80 μm thickness at a tissue depth of ca 230 μm from the surface. The permeability coefficients of 30% glucose from 10 independent experiments were averaged and found to be (1.35 ± 0.13) × 10(-5) cm s(-1) from the normal lung tissue, (1.78 ± 0.21) × 10(-5) cm s(-1) from the benign granulomatosis lung tissue, (2.88 ± 0.19) × 10(-5) cm s(-1) from the adenocarcinoma tumor and (3.53 ± 0.25) × 10(-5) cm s(-1) from the squamous cell carcinoma, respectively. It could be clearly seen that the permeability coefficients of 30% glucose increase ca 32%, 113% and 162% in the benign granulomatosis, adenocarcinoma tumor and squamous cell carcinoma of human lung tissue compared with that from the normal lung tissue, respectively. Therefore, we inferred from this pilot study that the OCT imaging is a feasible method to distinguish normal and cancer lung tissue.

In Vivo Comparison of the Optical Clearing Efficacy of Optical Clearing Agents in Human Skin by Quantifying Permeability Using Optical Coherence Tomography

The objective of this work is to quantify and compare the optical clearing efficacy of glucose, propylene glycol, glycerol solutions through the human skin tissue in vivo by calculating permeability coefficient of three solutions. Currently, the permeability coefficient of agent in tissues was extracted from optical coherence tomography (OCT) amplitude data mainly through the OCT signal slope and the OCT amplitude methods. In this study, we report the OCT attenuation coefficient method which is a relatively novel and rarely reported methodology to measure the permeability coefficient during the optical skin clearing procedure. The permeability coefficients for 40% propylene glycol, glucose and glycerol were (2.74 ± 0.05) × 10(-6) cm s(-1), (1.78 ± 0.04) × 10(-6) cm s(-1) and (1.67 ± 0.04) × 10(-6) cm s(-1), respectively. It could be clearly seen that the permeability coefficient of the 40% propylene glycol solution is higher than that of 40% glucose solution, and the permeability coefficient of the 40% glucose solution is higher than that of the 40% glycerol solution. These indicate 40% propylene glycol solution is more effective than others in the human skin in vivo. We then compare and prove consistency of optical clearing efficacy figured out by three different methods.

Optical coherence tomography to investigate optical properties of blood during coagulation

This study investigates the optical properties of human blood during the coagulation process under statics using optical coherence tomography (OCT). OCT signal slope (OCTSS) and 1∕e light penetration depth (d(1∕e)) were obtained from the profiles of reflectance versus depth. Results showed that both OCTSS and d(1∕e) were able to sensitively differentiate various stages of blood properties during coagulating. After 1 h clotting, OCTSS decreased by 47.0%, 15.0%, 13.7%, and 8.5% and d(1∕e) increased by 34.7%, 29.4%, 24.3%, and 22.9% for the blood samples at HCT of 25%, 35%, 45%, and 55%, respectively. The slope of d(1∕e) versus time (S(r), ×10(-4) mm∕s), associated with clot formation rate decreased from 6.0 ± 0.3, 3.7 ± 0.5 to 2.3 ± 0.4 with the increasing of HCT from 35%, 45%, to 55%. The clotting time (t(c)) from the d(1∕e) evolution curves was estimated to be 1969 ± 92 s, 375 ± 12 s, 455 ± 11 s, and 865 ± 47 s for the blood of 25%, 35%, 45%, and 55%. This study demonstrates that the parameters (t(c) and S(r)) from the variations in d(1∕e) had better sensitivity and smaller standard deviation. Furthermore, blood hematocrit affecting backscattering properties of blood during coagulation was capable of being discerned by OCT parameters. It is concluded that OCT is a potential technique to quantify and follow the liquid-gel transition of blood during clotting.

EFFICIENT FITTING RANGE FOR GLUCOSE MEASUREMENT WITH OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY

Studies of non-invasive glucose measurement with optical coherence tomography (OCT) in tissue-simulating phantoms and biological tissues show that glucose has an effect on the OCT signal slope. Choosing an efficient fitting range to calculate the OCT signal slope is important because it helps to improve the precision of glucose measurement. In this paper, we study the problem in two ways: (1) scattering-induced change of OCT signal slope versus depth in intralipid suspensions with different concentrations based on Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and experiments and (2) efficient fitting range for glucose measurement in 3% and 10% intralipid. The results show that the OCT signal slope expresses a contrary change with scattering coefficient below a certain depth in high intralipid concentrations, so that there is an effective fitting depth. With an efficient fitting range from 100 μm to the effective fitting depth, the precision of glucose measurement can be 4.4 mM for 10% intralipid and 2.2 mM for 3% intralipid.

Influence of Osmolytes on In Vivo Glucose Monitoring Using Optical Coherence Tomography

Diabetes mellitus and its complications are the third leading cause of death in the world, exceeded only by cardiovascular disease and cancer. Tighter monitoring and control of blood glucose could minimize complications associated with diabetes. Recently, optical coherence tomography (OCT) for noninvasive glucose monitoring was proposed and tested in vivo. The aim of this work was to investigate the influence of changes in blood glucose concentration ([glu]) and sodium concentration ([Na+]) on the OCT signal. We also investigated the influence of other important analytes on the sensitivity of glucose monitoring with OCT. The experiments were carried out in anesthetized female pigs. The OCT images were acquired continuously from skin, while [glu] and [Na+] were experimentally varied within their physiological ranges. Correlations of the OCT signal slope with [glu] and [Na+] were studied at different tissue depths. The tissue area probed with OCT was marked and cut for histological examination. The correlation of blood [glu] and [Na+] with the OCT signal slope was observed in separate tissue layers. On average, equimolar changes in [glu] produced 2.26 +/- 1.15 greater alterations of the OCT signal slope than changes in [Na+]. Variation of concentrations of other analytes did not influence the OCT signal slope. The influence of [Na+] on relative changes in the OCT signal slope was generally less than [glu]-induced changes. OCT is a promising method for noninvasive glucose monitoring because of its ability to track the influence of changing [glu] on individual tissue layers.

In vivo study of glucose-induced changes in skin properties assessed with optical coherence tomography

Recently, our in vivo studies demonstrated a strong correlation between blood glucose concentration and the slope of the optical coherence tomography (OCT) signal when the probing beam was scanned over a straight line. To improve the sensitivity of OCT for blood glucose monitoring, two-dimensional (2D) lateral scanning of the OCT probing beam was proposed. Depth-dependent changes in pig skin properties with variation of blood glucose concentration were revealed due to significant suppression of speckle noise and motion artefacts in 2D scanning mode. The correlation coefficient of the OCT signal slope with blood glucose concentration varied periodically in the range from −0.9 to +0.9 depending on depth. The period of variation of the correlation coefficient was 100–150 µm that corresponded to the distance between neighbour collagen bundles. We also observed a decrease of skin thickness by 10 ± 7.5 µm with an increase of blood glucose concentration by 277 ± 56 mg dl−1. Mechanisms of glucose-induced changes in skin properties owing to tissue layer shift caused by dehydration associated with the glucose osmotic effect were considered.

Study on the use of optical coherence tomography in measurements of paper properties

This study proposes a new method for the characterization of paper surface and bulk structure: optical coherence tomography (OCT). Although having been used in medicine for years, this technique is still relatively unknown in the paper-making industry. First, we provide a brief description of a conventional PC-controlled measurement system for the OCT imaging of paper. In this set-up, a powerful superluminescent diode is used to illuminate a Michelson interferometer with a free-space configuration, and a piezo-transducer is placed in the optical delay line to modulate the measurement signal for optical heterodyne detection. The set-up is then applied to demonstrate the ability of the technique to visualize the surface structures of widely disparate paper samples using a single device. Next, the paper provides 3D images of a fibre network and of typical copy paper. The results prove that OCT is applicable not only to the 3D imaging of simple wood fibre networks, but also to the imaging of complex commercial paper, provided that an appropriate clearing agent is used. Finally, the effect of filler on the OCT signal slope calculated by averaging several A-scans from the sample is demonstrated, showing that increasing filler content produces a corresponding decrease of decay of the A-scan in depth.

Noninvasive blood glucose monitoring with optical coherence tomography: a pilot study in human subjects.

To study the feasibility of noninvasive blood glucose monitoring using optical coherence tomography (OCT) technique in healthy volunteers. An OCT system with the wavelength of 1,300 nm was used in 15 healthy subjects in 18 clinical experiments. Standard oral glucose tolerance tests were performed to induce changes in blood glucose concentration. Blood samples were taken from the right arm vein every 5 or 15 min. OCT images were taken every 10-20 s from the left forearm over a total period of 3 h. The slope of the signals was calculated at the depth of 200-600 micro m from the skin surface. A total of 426 blood samples and 8,437 OCT images and signals were collected and analyzed in these experiments. There was a good correlation between changes in the slope of noninvasively measured OCT signals and blood glucose concentrations throughout the duration of the experiments. The slope of OCT signals changed significantly (up to 2.8% per 10 mg/dl) with variation of plasma glucose values. The good correlation obtained between the OCT signal slope and blood glucose concentration is due to the coherent detection of backscattered photons, which allows measurements of OCT signal from a specific tissue layer without unwanted signal from other tissue layers. This pilot study demonstrated the capability of the OCT technique to monitor blood glucose concentration noninvasively in human subjects. Further studies with a larger number of subjects including diabetic subjects are planned to validate these preliminary results.