We present a novel polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) system with an integrated retinal tracker. The tracking operates at up to 60 Hz, correcting PS-OCT scanning positions during the acquisition to avoid artifacts caused by eye motion. To demonstrate the practical performance of the system, we imaged several healthy volunteers and patients with AMD both with B-scan repetitions for frame averaging and with 3D raster scans. Under large retinal motions with up to 1 mm amplitude at 0.5 ~a few Hz frequency range, motion artifact suppression in the PS-OCT images as well as standard deviation noise reduction in the frame averaged retardation images are presented. References and links1. M. R. Hee, D. Huang, E. A. Swanson, and J. G. Fujimoto, "Polarization-Sensitive Low-Coherence Reflectometer for Birefringence Characterization and Ranging," J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 9(6), 903-908 (1992). 2. J. F. de Boer, T. E. Milner, M. J. C. van Gemert, and J. S. Nelson, "Two-dimensional birefringence imaging in biological tissue by polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography," Opt. Lett. 22(12), 934-936 (1997). 3. J. F. De Boer, S. M. Srinivas, A. Malekafzali, Z. P. Chen, and J. S. Nelson, "Imaging thermally damaged tissue by polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography," Opt. Express 3(6), 212-218 (1998). 4. J. F. de Boer, T. E. Milner, and J. S. Nelson, "Determination of the depth-resolved Stokes parameters of light backscattered from turbid media by use of polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography," Opt. Lett. 24(5), 300-302 (1999). 5. C. K. Hitzenberger, E. Goetzinger, M. Sticker, M. Pircher, and A. F. Fercher, "Measurement and imaging of birefringence and optic axis orientation by phase resolved polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography," Opt. Express 9(13), 780-790 (2001 Hitzenberger, "Value of polarisation-sensitive optical coherence tomography in diseases affecting the retinal pigment epithelium," Br. J. Ophthalmol. 92(2), 204-209 (2008). 18. C. Ahlers, E. Götzinger, M. Pircher, I. Golbaz, F. Prager, C. Schütze, B. Baumann, C. K. Hitzenberger, and U.Schmidt-Erfurth, "Imaging of the retinal pigment epithelium in age-related macular degeneration using polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography," Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 51(4), 2149-2157 (2010). 36. E. Götzinger, B. Baumann, M. Pircher, and C. K. Hitzenberger, "Polarization maintaining fiber based ultra-high resolution spectral domain polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography," Opt. Express 17(25), 22704-22717 (2009

Abstract:We present a new semi-automatic processing method for retinal nerve fiber bundle tracing based on polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) data sets. The method for tracing is based on a nerve fiber orientation map that covers the fovea and optic nerve head (ONH) regions. In order to generate the orientation map, two types of information are used: optic axis orientation based on polarization data, and complementary information obtained from nerve fiber layer (NFL) local thickness variation to reveal fiber bundle structures around the fovea. The corresponding two orientation maps are fused into a combined fiber orientation map. En face maps of NFL retardation, thickness, and unitdepth-retardation (UDR, equivalent to birefringence) are transformed into "along-trace" maps by using the obtained traces of the nerve fiber bundles. The method is demonstrated in the eyes of healthy volunteers, and as an example of further analyses utilizing this method, maps illustrating the gradients of NFL retardation, thickness, and UDR are demonstrated. References and links1. S. C. Pollock and N. R. Miller, "The Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer," Int. Ophthalmol. Clin. 26(4), 201-221 (1986). 2. T. E. Ogden, "Nerve fiber layer of the primate retina: morphometric analysis," Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci.25(1), 19-29 (1984). 3. X. R. Huang, "Polarization properties of the retinal nerve fiber layer," Bull. Soc. Belge Ophtalmol. 302, 71-88 (2006). 4. H. A. Quigley, E. M. Addicks, and W. R. Green, "Optic nerve damage in human glaucoma. III. Quantitative correlation of nerve fiber loss and visual field defect in glaucoma, ischemic neuropathy, papilledema, and toxic neuropathy," Arch. Ophthalmol. 100(1), 135-146 (1982).

Radiation therapy (RT) is widely used for cancer treatment, alone or in combination with other therapies. Recent RT advances have revived interest in delivering higher dose in fewer fractions, which may invoke both cellular and microvascular damage mechanisms. Microvasculature may thus be a potentially sensitive functional biomarker of RT early response, especially for such emerging RT treatments. However it is difficult to measure directly and non-invasively, and its time course, dose dependencies, and overall importance in tumor control are unclear. We use functional optical coherence tomography for quantitative longitudinal in vivo imaging in preclinical models of human tumor xenografts subjected to 10, 20 and 30 Gy doses, furnishing a detailed assessment of vascular remodeling following RT. Immediate (minutes to tens of minutes) and early (days to weeks) RT responses of microvascular supply, as well as tumor volume and fluorescence intensity, were quantified and demonstrated robust and complex temporal dose-dependent behaviors. The findings were compared to theoretical models proposed in the literature.

Using PS-OCT, subretinal fibrosis can be identified as an intrinsically birefringent structure and can be segmented based solely on tissue-specific contrast. Polarization-sensitive OCT offers a unique method to identify clinically relevant components of SHRM (i.e., neovascular tissue versus fibrous tissue) and therefore allows for an optimized disease management and evaluation of therapeutic strategies.

Abstract:The probability density function (PDF) of light scattering intensity can be used to characterize the scattering medium. We have recently shown that in optical coherence tomography (OCT), a PDF formalism can be sensitive to the number of scatterers in the probed scattering volume and can be represented by the K-distribution, a functional descriptor for non-Gaussian scattering statistics. Expanding on this initial finding, here we examine polystyrene microsphere phantoms with different sphere sizes and concentrations, and also human skin and fingernail in vivo. It is demonstrated that the K-distribution offers an accurate representation for the measured OCT PDFs. The behavior of the shape parameter of Kdistribution that best fits the OCT scattering results is investigated in detail, and the applicability of this methodology for biological tissue characterization is demonstrated and discussed.

The distribution of backscattered intensities as described by the probability density function (PDF) of tissue-scattered light contains information that may be useful for tissue assessment and diagnosis, including characterization of its pathology. In this Letter, we examine the PDF description of the light scattering statistics in a well characterized tissue-like particulate medium using optical coherence tomography (OCT). It is shown that for low scatterer density, the governing statistics depart considerably from a Gaussian description and follow the K distribution for both OCT amplitude and intensity. The PDF formalism is shown to be independent of the scatterer flow conditions; this is expected from theory, and suggests robustness and motion independence of the OCT amplitude (and OCT intensity) PDF metrics in the context of potential biomedical applications.

Measurement and imaging of depolarization by polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) requires averaging of Stokes vector elements within two- or three-dimensional (3-D) evaluation windows to obtain the degree of polarization uniformity (DOPU). By use of a PS-OCT system with an integrated retinal tracker, we analyze optimum conditions for depolarization imaging, data processing, and segmentation of depolarizing tissue in the human retina. The trade-offs between figures of merit like DOPU imaging sensitivity, efficiency, and susceptibility are evaluated in terms of 3-D resolution. The results are used for a new, detailed interpretation of PS-OCT high-resolution images of the human retinal pigment epithelium and Bruch’s membrane.

The formation of macroscopic coherence associated with a Bose-Einstein phase transition in excitons has long been sought for. We review our recent observation of related effects of exciton-polariton lasing in a semiconductor microcavity.