Current clinical intravascular optical coherence tomography (IV-OCT) imaging systems have limited in-vivo flow imaging capability because of non-uniform catheter rotation and inadequate A-line scan density. Thus any flow-localisation method that seeks to identify sites of variation within the OCT image data-sets, whether that is in amplitude or phase, produces non-representative correlation (or variance) maps. In this study, both mean and the variation within a set of cross-correlation maps, for static OCT imaging was used to differentiate flow from nonflow regions. Variation was quantified by use of standard deviation. The advantage of this approach is its ability to image flow, even ...

Nowadays optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a rapidly developing technique with various applications, including biomedical imaging and diagnosis. One of the main shortcomings of current OCT techniques is low resolution and sensitivity to structural changes (typically about 10 microns). The best ultra-high resolution OCT techniques demonstrate sensitivity to structural changes and depth resolution of about 1 micron. Since many applications of interest (such as cancer) depend on structural changes at the nanoscale, OCT would definitely benefit from improved structural resolution and sensitivity. A new spectral encoding of spatial frequency (SESF) approach for quantitative characterization of the structure with nanoscale sensitivity ...

There has been a growing interest in the development of a low cost depth-resolved non-invasive dermis imaging tool for both clinical and fundamental investigations of skin diseases. Multiple reference optical coherence tomography (MR-OCT) is a recently developed miniature time-domain low coherence interferometeric imaging platform, which promises to fit into robust, cost-effective designs that are virtually solid state, typical of handheld devices. In this paper we demonstrate the feasibility of MR-OCT for dermis imaging applications by incorporating it in a dermascope, which provides simultaneous imaging of dermis and an interactive tool for beam steering and registration of the OCT imaging beam ...

Multiple reference optical coherence tomography (MR-OCT) is a recently developed time-domain interferometeric imaging platform, which promises to fit into robust, cost-effective designs that are virtually solid state. An optical delay is created by the reference mirror which is mounted on a piezo-electric transducer (PZT) and the key element of MR-OCT technology is the presence of a partial mirror in front of the reference mirror. However, the limited axial displacement range at higher scanning-frequencies are a limitation of a PZT-based optical delay. Moreover, PZT-based actuators require a relatively high operational voltage and are expensive. In this paper we present a voice ...

Depth resolved label-free detection of structural changes with nanoscale sensitivity is an outstanding problem in the biological and physical sciences and has significant applications in both the fundamental research and healthcare diagnostics arenas. Here we experimentally demonstrate a novel label-free depth resolved sensing technique based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) to detect structural changes at the nanoscale. Structural components of the 3D object, spectrally encoded in the remitted light, are transformed from the Fourier domain into each voxel of the 3D OCT image without compromising sensitivity. Spatial distribution of the nanoscale structural changes in the depth direction is visualized in ...

The correlation mapping processing algorithm was developed by our group and utilises the time varying speckle effect produced from moving scatterers to provide contrast against static tissue. The technique has previously been applied to images acquired with frequency-domain OCT systems and hence in a cross-sectional geometry. In this work, a full-field optical coherence tomography system has been developed for the purpose of performing non-scanning en face flow imaging. The light source is centred at 840 nm with a bandwidth of 50 nm resulting in an axial resolution of 8 µm in air. Microscope objectives with a numerical aperture of 0 ...

Microcirculation imaging is a key parameter for studying the pathophysiological processes of various disease conditions, in both clinical and fundamental research. Recently, the functional extension of the OCT technique to image depth-resolved microcirculation has become a very promising area of research. There is a growing interest in the field of development of various types of OCT-based angiographic techniques, which aims to visualize the lumens and architecture of blood vessels in many clinical and fundamental areas of research, including cardiology, dermatology, neurology, ophthalmology, small animal imaging studies, and so forth. OCT-based angiography techniques utilize the red blood cell scattering dynamics as ...