title: Comparison of different metrics for analysis and visualization in spectroscopic optical coherence tomography.
abstract: Spectroscopic Optical Coherence Tomography (S-OCT) extracts depth resolved spectra that are inherently available from OCT signals. The back scattered spectra contain useful functional information regarding the sample, since the light is altered by wavelength dependent absorption and scattering caused by chromophores and structures of the sample. Two aspects dominate the performance of S-OCT: (1) the spectral analysis processing method used to obtain the spatially-resolved spectroscopic information and (2) the metrics used to visualize and interpret relevant sample features. In this work, we focus on the second aspect, where we will compare established and novel metrics for S-OCT. These concepts include the adaptation of methods known from multispectral imaging and modern signal processing approaches such as pattern recognition. To compare the performance of the metrics in a quantitative manner, we use phantoms with microsphere scatterers of different sizes that are below the system's resolution and therefore cannot be differentiated using intensity based OCT images. We show that the analysis of the spectral features can clearly separate areas with different scattering properties in multi-layer phantoms. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of our approach for contrast enhancement in bovine articular cartilage.
authors.affiliation: Photonics and Terahertz Technology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jaedicke
authors.affiliation: Photonics and Terahertz Technology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Semih
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Agcaer
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Duke University, 2303 French Family Science Center, 124 Science Drive, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
authors.forename: Francisco E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Robles
authors.affiliation: Institute for Experimental Orthopaedics and Biomechanics, Philipps-University Marburg, Baldingerstr. 35043 Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Marian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Steinert
authors.affiliation: Institute for Experimental Orthopaedics and Biomechanics, Philipps-University Marburg, Baldingerstr. 35043 Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, University of Applied Science Georg Agricola, Herner Str 45, 44787 Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goebel
authors.affiliation: Photonics and Terahertz Technology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Nils C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Gerhardt
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, University of Applied Science Georg Agricola, Herner Str 45, 44787 Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Hubert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Welp
authors.affiliation: Photonics and Terahertz Technology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Hofmann
keywords: (170.3880) Medical and biological imaging; (170.4500) Optical coherence tomography; (180.0180) Microscopy; (290.5850) Scattering, particles; (300.0300) Spectroscopy