Optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows non-invasive imaging of sub-surface structures in vivo, ideally without a need for target preparation. In conventional OCT, the contrast for blood vessels depends on a variety of factors and can be challenging. Speckle variance has been recognized as a method to enhance contrast for blood flow without the application of contrast agents in OCT images. Here, we demonstrate the possibility of extracting blood flow information from a volumetric OCT datasets that was obtained routinely from a human participant. We used a commercially available OCT system with a clinical CE-mark. The light source has a central wavelength of 1310 nm. Using Multi-Beam technology, the system achieves an isometric resolution of better than 7.5 μm in tissue over the entire imaging depth of around 1 mm. At 1 mm image width, 21 frames (B-scans) per second can be imaged. We used the speckle variance in order to enhance the contrast for blood vessels in vivo. This method allowed us determining the presence and depth of blood flow within the 1 mm penetration depth, without dependence on direction or orientation of the blood flow with respect to the scanning beam.

Date Published: 19 February 2010
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 7554, Optical Coherence Tomography and Coherence Domain Optical Methods in Biomedicine XIV, 75542Z (19 February 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.841906

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7554:
Optical Coherence Tomography and Coherence Domain Optical Methods in Biomedicine XIV
Joseph A. Izatt; James G. Fujimoto; Valery V. Tuchin, Editor(s)