title: Rapid and high-resolution imaging of human liver specimens by full-field optical coherence tomography.
abstract: We report rapid and high-resolution tomographic en face imaging of human liver specimens by full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT). First, the arrangement of the FF-OCT system was described and the performance of the system was measured. The measured axial and lateral resolutions of the system are 0.8 and 0.9 μm, respectively. The system has a sensitivity of ∼60 dB and can achieve an imaging rate of 7 fps and a penetration depth of ∼80 μm. The histological structures of normal liver can be seen clearly in the en face tomographic images, including central veins, cords of hepatocytes separated by sinusoidal spaces, and portal area (portal vein, the hepatic arteriole, and the bile duct). A wide variety of histological subtypes of hepatocellular carcinoma was observed in en face tomographic images, revealing notable cancerous features, including the nuclear atypia (enlarged convoluted nuclei), the polygonal tumor cells with obvious resemblance to hepatocytes with enlarged nuclei. In addition, thicker fibrous bands, which make the cytoplasmic plump vesicular nuclei indistinct, were also seen in the images. Finally, comparison between the portal vein in a normal specimen versus that seen in the rare type of cholangiocarcinoma was made. The results show that the cholangiocarcinoma presents with a blurred pattern of portal vein in the lateral direction and an aggregated distribution in the axial direction; the surrounding sinusoidal spaces and nuclei of cholangiocarcinoma are absent. The findings in this work may be used as additional signs of liver cancer or cholangiocarcinoma, demonstrating capacity of FFOCT device for early cancer diagnosis and many other tumor-related studies in biopsy.
authors.affiliation: Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Department of Optical Engineering, 200 Xiao Ling Wei, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210094, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Department of Optical Engineering, 200 Xiao Ling Wei, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210094, China.
authors.forename: Wanrong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Nanjing University, Medical School of Nanjing University, 22 Hankou, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Department of Optical Engineering, 200 Xiao Ling Wei, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210094, China.
authors.forename: Yingcheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Xi'an Railway Vocational & Technical Institute, Department of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, 133 Zi Qiang Xi Lu, Xian, Shaanxi 710014, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Department of Optical Engineering, 200 Xiao Ling Wei, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210094, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*