title: Differential standard deviation of log-scale intensity based optical coherence tomography angiography.
abstract: In this paper, a differential standard deviation of log-scale intensity (DSDLI) based optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is presented for calculating microvascular images of human skin. The DSDLI algorithm calculates the variance in difference images of two consecutive log-scale intensity based structural images from the same position along depth direction to contrast blood flow. The en face microvascular images were then generated by calculating the standard deviation of the differential log-scale intensities within the specific depth range, resulting in an improvement in spatial resolution and SNR in microvascular images compared to speckle variance OCT and power intensity differential method. The performance of DSDLI was testified by both phantom and in vivo experiments. In in vivo experiments, a self-adaptive sub-pixel image registration algorithm was performed to remove the bulk motion noise, where 2D Fourier transform was utilized to generate new images with spatial interval equal to half of the distance between two pixels in both fast-scanning and depth directions. The SNRs of signals of flowing particles are improved by 7.3 dB and 6.8 dB on average in phantom and in vivo experiments, respectively, while the average spatial resolution of images of in vivo blood vessels is increased by 21%.
authors.affiliation: Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Department of Optical Engineering, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Weisong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Department of Optical Engineering, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Wanrong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Ryerson University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biophotonics and Bioengineering Lab, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Chaoliang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Ryerson University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biophotonics and Bioengineering Lab, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.|Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Division of Neurosurgery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.|University of Toronto, Division of Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Victor X D
authors.initials: VXD
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000792:Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D005385:Fingers / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*
keywords: SNR; biomedical imaging; en face microvascular images; optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA); spatial resolution