In vivo tomographic visualization of intracochlear vibration using a supercontinuum multifrequency-swept optical coherence microscope

Abstract

This study combined a previously developed optical system with two additional key elements: a supercontinuum light source characterized by high output power and an analytical technique that effectively extracts interference signals required for improving the detection limit of vibration amplitude. Our system visualized 3D tomographic images and nanometer scale vibrations in the cochlear sensory epithelium of a live guinea pig. The transverse-and axial-depth resolution was 3.6 and 2.7 µm, respectively. After exposure to acoustic stimuli of 21-25 kHz at a sound pressure level of 70-85 dB, spatial amplitude and phase distributions were quantified on a targeted surface, whose area was 522 × 522 μm 2 .

Sparsity-Aware OCT Volumetric Data Restoration Using Optical Synthesis Model

“…A fenestra was surgically opened on the ventrolateral site of the bulla in order to shine the low coherence light on the epithelium in the basal turn of the cochlea through the intact transparent round window. The imaging procedure of the sensory epithelium using MS en-face OCT was described elsewhere [9]. 5,000 en-face images were acquired by scanning within approximately 370µm in the axial direction.…”

“…As a result, the acquired interference is prone to hiding under severe noise. In [8], [9], Choi et al adopted filtering in the FFT domain to extract high-energy spectral bands in the frequency domain through a manual operation to restore largescale 3-D OCT data. However, an automated optimization is demanded to improve the efficiency and quality of the process.…”

Optimization of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography with a supercontinuum source for in vivo motion detection of low reflective outer hair cells in guinea pig cochleae

“…To examine the nano-vibrations within the epithelium, optical coherence tomography (OCT)-based vibrometry systems have been recently developed [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. These OCT systems successfully analyze the tissues or cells in the epithelium [15][16][17][18][19][22][23][24][25][26]. Though their theoretical resolutions in inanimate materials are cellular level, the difference in vibrations between the apical and basal regions of OHCs in animals in vivo has not yet been fully addressed.…”