Dual-window dual-bandwidth spectroscopic optical coherence tomography metric for qualitative scatterer size differentiation in tissues.
This study investigates the autocorrelation bandwidths of dual-window (DW) optical coherence tomography (OCT) k-space scattering profile of different-sized microspheres and their correlation to scatterer size. A dual-bandwidth spectroscopic metric defined as the ratio of the 10% to 90% autocorrelation bandwidths is found to change monotonically with microsphere size and gives the best contrast enhancement for scatterer size differentiation in the resulting spectroscopic image. A simulation model supports the experimental results and revealed a tradeoff between the smallest detectable scatterer size and the maximum scatterer size in the linear range of the dual-window dual-bandwidth (DWDB) metric, which depends on the choice of the light source optical bandwidth. Spectroscopic OCT (SOCT) images of microspheres and tonsil tissue samples based on the proposed DWDB metric showed clear differentiation between different-sized scatterers as compared to those derived from conventional short-time Fourier transform metrics. The DWDB metric significantly improves the contrast in SOCT imaging and can aid the visualization and identification of dissimilar scatterer size in a sample. Potential applications include the early detection of cell nuclear changes in tissue carcinogenesis, the monitoring of healing tendons, and cell proliferation in tissue scaffolds.
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639798 Singapore. tayc0014@e.ntu.edu.sg
Benjamin Chia-Meng
BC
Tay
Tzu-Hao
TH
Chow
Beng-Koon
BK
Ng
Thomas Kwok-Seng
TK
Loh
D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008863:Microspheres; D008954:Models, Biological; D014066:Palatine Tonsil / Q000737:chemistry; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*