title: Dynamic contrast optical coherence tomography images transit time and quantifies microvascular plasma volume and flow in the retina and choriocapillaris.
abstract: Despite the prevalence of optical imaging techniques to measure hemodynamics in large retinal vessels, quantitative measurements of retinal capillary and choroidal hemodynamics have traditionally been challenging. Here, a new imaging technique called dynamic contrast optical coherence tomography (DyC-OCT) is applied in the rat eye to study microvascular blood flow in individual retinal and choroidal layersin vivo. DyC-OCT is based on imaging the transit of an intravascular tracer dynamically as it passes through the field-of-view. Hemodynamic parameters can be determined through quantitative analysis of tracer kinetics. In addition to enabling depth-resolved transit time, volume, and flow measurements, the injected tracer also enhances OCT angiograms and enables clear visualization of the choriocapillaris, particularly when combined with a post-processing method for vessel enhancement. DyC-OCT complements conventional OCT angiography through quantification of tracer dynamics, similar to fluorescence angiography, but with the important added benefit of laminar resolution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA.
authors.forename: Conrad W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Merkle
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA.
authors.forename: Conor
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Leahy
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA; Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science, University of California Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, California, USA.
authors.forename: Vivek J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
keywords: (110.4500) Optical coherence tomography; (170.1470) Blood or tissue constituent monitoring; (170.3880) Medical and biological imaging; (170.5380) Physiology; (170.5755) Retina scanning; (170.6900) Three-dimensional microscopy