High-resolution imaging of microvasculature in human skin in-vivo with optical coherence tomography

Abstract

In this paper, the features of the intensity-based Doppler variance (IBDV) method were analyzed systemically with a flow phantom. The effects of beam scanning density, flow rate and the time interval between neighboring A-lines on the performance of this method were investigated. The IBDV method can be used to quantify the flow rate and its sensitivity can be improved by increasing the time interval between the neighboring A-lines. A higher sensitivity IBDV method that applies the algorithm along the slower scan direction was proposed. In comparison to laser speckle imaging maps of blood flow, we demonstrated the ability of the method to identify vessels with altered blood flow. In clinical measurements, we demonstrated the ability of the method to image vascular networks with exquisite spatial resolution and at depths up to 1.2 mm in human skin. These results collectively demonstrated the potential of the method to monitor the microvasculature during disease progression and in response to therapeutic intervention.

Three-dimensional multi-contrast imaging of in vivo human skin by Jones matrix optical coherence tomography

“…OCT-A has also been applied to dermatological investigations. This method enables the non-invasive visualization of the internal vascular structure in vivo [38,39] In this paper, we demonstrate our new multifunctional (multi-contrast) Jones matrix optical coherence tomography (JM-OCT) for dermatological imaging. It enables the simultaneous investigation of the polarization and flow properties of skin.…”

Feasibility of ablative fractional laser-assisted drug delivery with optical coherence tomography

“…With the development of Fourier-domain OCT, including spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) and swept-source OCT (SS-OCT), can provide a high imaging sensitivity in biological tissue [18][19][20][21][22][23]. Currently, OCT has become a clinical approach for various disease diagnoses, such as ophthalmology [24-27], dermatology [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36], cardiology [37,38], and gastrointestinal tract [39,40]. For dermatology applications, some groups have demonstrated that OCT can be used for diagnoses of skin diseases, skin cancer [28,29], sun damage [30], and burn depth [31].…”

“…With polarization-sensitive OCT, the human burn scars can be quantitatively analyzed, and human skin at different ages can be differentiated [32][33][34][35]. Moreover, OCT-based angiography has been used for identification of skin diseases [36]. In addition, several approaches have been proposed to monitor or evaluate the laser tissue ablation, including histology [41], confocal microscopy [42], harmonic microscopy [43] and OCT [44].…”

Swept source optical coherence microscopy using a 1310 nm VCSEL light source

“…Furthermore, functional imaging methods, such as Doppler OCT, can be applied to extract blood flow and enhance visualization of vasculature [22,23]. Finally, access to phase enables numerical correction of aberrations, as demonstrated in methods such as interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy (ISAM) [24].…”