In this study, a diversity of the human lacrimal canaliculus (LC) shape was shown using dynamic optical coherence tomography (D-OCT) method. D-OCT is a method of clear imaging of a fluid using a contrast agent. LC plays an important role in tear drainage system and it is expected to assess LC in detail without pain of subjects. Non-invasive and non-contact OCT imaging of LC of 6 eyes of 3 subjects was performed. The LC images were cut out by applying the D-OCT method and three-dimensionally reconstructed to evaluate the characteristics of LC. Although no significant difference was found between the left and right LCs of the same subject, it was shown that individual differences were remarkable.
In this study, the human lacrimal canaliculus (LC), an important segment of the lacrimal drainage system, was imaged using dynamic optical coherence tomography (D-OCT) and the 3D structure of the LC was rendered. In D-OCT system, a turbid commercial ophthalmic solution was used as an extrinsic contrast agent. The lumen boundary of the LC appeared clearer in D-OCT images compared with simple static OCT images, making segmentation easier. D-OCT was performed by calculating the sum of the squared differences of intensities with two different normalization parameters. By color-combining these two D-OCT images and static OCT image, using image calculation software, the contrast agent and the lumen boundary can be clearly separated. 3D volumetric images of the LCs are demonstrated.
is vacant or filled with material having a refractive index different from the tissue, the observed structure is deformed
significantly. This deformation artifact can be minimized by filling the cavity with liquid having a refractive index nearly
equal to the tissue. Furthermore, by using dynamical OCT method, cavity image intensity can be significantly enhanced
compared with the tissue. This image contrast improvement may allow imaging of cavity structures inside deep in tissues.
In this paper, we demonstrate good contrast of speckle variance OCT imaging of phantoms. A trial of deep OCT imaging
is introduced with which we can extend the OCT depth range to 27.5 mm with a commercial swept source, while the preinstalled
k-clock allows only the OCT depth range of 5 mm.
The purpose of this work is to develop a method to generate external k-clock sampling signals, which provides enhanced
depth ranges up to 13.8 mm with commercial reflective Fabry-Perot tunable laser type SS light sources. The strategy to
enhance the depth range is to purify the k-sampling clock using electrical filters. We found two depth ranges and one
optical delay length, where enhanced depth ranges can be attained. We observed PSFs and OCT images at three selected
depth ranges of 6.7, 11.5 and 13.8 mm using newly developed external k-sampling-clock generator. OCT imaging of
entire anterior segment of a human eye are demonstrated with depth ranges 11.5 and 13.8 mm.
For investigation of accommodation and presbyopia, the ciliary body and its dynamics were imaged with Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) method. We used two OCT systems; a discretely-swept frequency-comb OCT with a center wavelength at 1.6µ and ultra-fast spectral domain OCT with a center wavelength at 1.3μm. Measurements of dynamical modification of the ciliary body were carried out with ranging in age from 22 to 79. The OCT images and movies represent the changes of the ciliary body in the relaxed state and accommodated state. Modification in the ciliary body with accommodation was more evident for the younger subject group from the results of 2D imaging. The time dependent 3D movies of ciliary body dynamics were observed for the first time using ultra-fast spectral domain OCT system. The time duration of ciliary body thickness change in relation to the accommodation was measured from the movies.
We have developed swept source optical coherence tomography (OCT) system with an optical comb swept source
system. The swept source system comprised of two super-structured grating distributed Bragg reflector lasers covering a
wavelength range from 1561-1693 nm. A method to scan these lasers to obtain an interference signal without stitching
noises, which are inherent in these lasers, and to connect two lasers without concatenation noise is explained. Method to
reduce optical aliasing noises in this optical comb swept laser OCT is explained and demonstrated based on the
characteristic of the optical aliasing noises in this particular OCT system. By reduction of those noises, a sensitivity of
124 dB was realized. The A-scan rate, resolution and depth range were 3.1 kHz, 16 μm (in air) and 12 mm, respectively.
Deep imaging penetration into tissue is demonstrated for two selected samples.
We report on detailed characterization of a newly developed ultra-high speed optical coherence tomography (OCT)
system using arrayed wave guide at 1.3 μm. An axial resolution of 27 μm, a depth range of 3.98 mm, and a detection
speed of 2.5 or 10 MHz axial scan per second have been achieved. We also discuss the effectiveness of a
semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) in the system. The system sensitivity without SOA was about 78 dB, which
is far less than the shot-noise-limited sensitivity because of relative intensity noise and loss of optical intensity in the
system. To improve the low sensitivity, we used the SOA in the system and achieved a sensitivity of 94 dB with a
probe power of 10 mW, which allowed us good imaging quality in biomedical applications. The OCT system is also
capable to display a volumetric tomography continuously in real time by using field programmable gate arrays
(FPGA) and general purpose graphical processing unit (GPGPU) for high-speed parallel data processing. We present
several tissue images such as human finger skin, finger near nail and extracted trachea of a pig.
KEYWORDS: Optical coherence tomography, Field programmable gate arrays, Data acquisition, Data processing, 3D image processing, 3D displays, Demultiplexers, Interfaces, Graphics processing units, 3D acquisition
We report on the software design of an ultra-parallel ultra-high speed spectral domain optical coherence tomography
(SD-OCT) system. In our system, optical de-multiplexers divide an interferogram into 320 light every 18.7 GHz
frequency, instead of a refractive grating for spectroscopy so far used in conventional SD-OCT. These optical elements
enable to get rid of a re-sampling process and contribute to reduce the load of computing. The fast Fourier transform
(FFT) is performed by field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and real-time 3D OCT images are created on graphics
processing unit (GPU). Our system achieves a real-time 3D OCT image display (4D display) with an A-scan, B-scan,
and volume rate of 10 MHz, 4 kHz, and 12 volumes per second, respectively.
Dental implantation has become popular in dental treatments. Although careful planning is made to identify vital
structures such as the inferior alveolar nerve or the sinus, as well as dimensions of the bone, prior to commencement of
surgery, dental implantation is not fully free from risks. If a diagnostic tool is available to objectively measure bone
feature before surgery and dimensions during surgery, considerable fraction of the risks may be avoided. Optical
coherence tomography (OCT) is a candidate for the purpose, which enables cross-sectional imaging of bone. In this
work, we performed in vitro cross-sectional imaging of extracted pig's jawbone with swept source OCT using
superstructure-grating distributed Bragg reflector (SSG-DBR) laser as the source. The relatively long wavelength range
of 1600nm of the laser is suitable for deeper bone imaging. We confirmed an image penetration depth of about 3 mm in
physical length, which satisfies one of the criterions to apply OCT for in vivo diagnosis of bone during surgery.
KEYWORDS: Optical coherence tomography, Data acquisition, 3D displays, 3D image processing, Video, Tissues, Biopsy, Data processing, Diagnostics, Field programmable gate arrays
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become a promising diagnostic method in many medical fields. Non-invasive
real-time optical biopsy of internal organs is one of the most attractive applications of OCT enabling in-situ diagnostic of
cancer in its early stage, i.e. optical biopsy. For the application, faster OCT methods are required to reduce the inspection
time and motion artifacts in images. A criterion to satisfy the purpose is an endoscopic-OCT method capable to display
volumetric tomography continuously in real-time at a rate of video movie like conventional endoscopes. In our previous
work, we demonstrated ultra-high speed OCT at an A-scan rate of 60 MHz. However, movies were rendered after the
data acquisition. In this work, we have developed an ultra-fast data processing system, installed it in the ultra-high speed
OCT system, and enabled real time display of various 3D tomography images without limitation of diagnostic time, i.e.
4D OCT imaging, at an A-scan rate, B-scan rate and volume rate of 10 MHz, 4 kHz and 12 volumes/sec, respectively.
Various image presentations in real-time are demonstrated such as continuous rendered 3D imaging and continuous 2D-slice
scanning 3D imaging.
We describe a high-speed long-depth range optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) system employing a long-coherence length tunable source and demonstrate dynamic full-range imaging of the anterior segment of the eye including from the cornea surface to the posterior capsule of the crystalline lens with a depth range of 12 mm without removing complex conjugate image ambiguity. The dependence of the whole anterior segment change on time following abrupt relaxation from the accommodated to the relaxed status
was measured for a healthy eye and that with an intraocular lens.
A large depth range is needed if optical coherence tomography (OCT) is to be used to observe multiple teeth
simultaneously. A discretely swept optical frequency domain imaging system with a 24-mm depth range was made by
using a superstructure-grating distributed Bragg reflector (SSG-DBR) laser as the light source and setting the frequencystep
interval to be 3.13 GHz (λ ≈ 0.026 nm). The swept wavelength range was 40 nm centered at 1580 nm, the resolution
was 29 μm, and the A-scan rate was 1.3 kHz. Application of the OCT system to a dental phantom was demonstrated.
We describe preliminary results of high-speed 2-dimensional Doppler OCT measurement using a unique optical
frequency domain imaging (OFDI) system. SSG-DBR laser is the light source from which wave number is swept
discretely over predetermined absolute values in equal wave number interval with constant output intensity.
Multi-sampling at each wave number enables us to reconstruct multiple images by 1 transversal scan, and the
2 dimensional flow image is reconstructed from the phase Doppler shift between 2 successive images. Maximum
detectable velocity is restricted by sampling rate, which is higher than A-scan flow has been carried out with this system adopting Kasai velocity estimator. The results predict
that the method is valid for stationary flow.
We demonstrate a single-mode and fast wavelength swept light source by using Superestrucuture grating
distributed Bragg reflector (SSG-DBR) lasers for use in optical frequency-domain reflectometry optical coherence
tomography. The SSG-DBR lasers provide single-mode operation resulting in high coherency. Response of the
wavelength tuning is very fast; several nanoseconds, but there was an unintentional wavelength drift resulting from a
thermal drift due to injecting tuning current. The dri1ft unfortunately requires long time to converge; more than a few
milliseconds. For suppressing the wavelength drift, we introduced Thermal Drift Compensation mesa (TDC) parallel to
the laser mesa with the spacing of 20 μm. By controlling TDC current to satisfy the total electric power injected into
both the laser mesa and the TDC mesa, the thermal drift can be suppressed.
In the present work, we fabricated 4 wavelength's kinds of SSG-DBR laser, which covers respective
wavelength band; S-band (1496-1529 nm), C-band (1529-1564 nm), L--band (1564-1601 nm), and L+-band (1601-1639).
We set the frequency channel of each laser with the spacing 6.25 GHz and 700 channels. The total frequency channel
number is 2800 channels (700 ch × 4 lasers). We simultaneously operated the 4 lasers with a time interval of 500
ns/channel. A wavelength tuning range of more than 140 nm was achieved within 350 μs. The output power was
controlled to be 10 mW for all channels. A single-mode, accurate, wide, and fast wavelength sweep was demonstrated
with the SSG-DBR lasers having TDC mesa structure for the first time.
We evaluate the image penetration depth of optical-frequency domain imaging into the biomedical tissue at longer wavelengths.
The light sources are fiber laser at the center wavelength of 1310 nm and at the center wavelength of 1550 nm. These sources provide frequency scan rate of up to 8 kHz over a wavelength range of 110 nm at 1310 nm with ~10 μm axial resolution and a wavelength range of 150 nm at 1550 nm with ~12 μm axial resolution. OCT tomograms of soft and hard tissues acquired at 1310 nm are compared to those obtained at 1550 nm.
We describe a high-speed Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) using optical de-multiplexers for
spectral dispersion of interferograms. The optical de-multiplexer enables to separate 256 narrow spectral bands from a
broadband incident light in 25.0 GHz frequency interval centered at 192.2 THz (1559.8 nm) and allows simultaneous
detection of all the bands at the speed of DAQ. Using the optical de-multiplexers into a Fourier domain OCT system as
spectral analyzers, OCT imaging of 60,000,000 axial scans per second has been achieved. Using a resonant scanner for
lateral scan, 16 kHz frame rate, 1400 A-lines per frame, 3 mm depth range, 23 micron meter resolution OCT imaging has
been demonstrated.
We propose another window function used in production process of A-line by Fourier transform in optical frequency domain imaging. It is shown that cosine tapered window has an advantage over Gaussian window employed conventionally.
We have been developing a Mach-Zehnder type of optical frequency domain reflectometry optical coherence tomography (OFDR-OCT) that uses discretely swept superstructure-grating distributed Bragg- reflector (SSG-DBR) lasers developed for telecommunication fields and has a 12-mm-depth range. We report images obtained with L-band (1560 to 1600 nm) and C-band (1529 to 1568 nm) SSG-DBR sources at 0.5 µs/step, which is 20 times faster than the scanning speed used to obtain the images we reported previously. Despite the faster scanning, we obtain good OCT images of both hard and soft dental tissues in vitro and in vivo.
We have been developing a unique optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR)-OCT based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer using a discretly swept superstructure-grating distributed Bragg- reflector (SSG-DBR) lasers developed for telecommunication field. Our previous measurements at C-band wavelength (1529 to 1568 nm) revealed good quality of data. In this work, we extend measurements with a L-band (1560 to 1600 nm) SSG-DBR source at faster scanning speed of 0.5 &mgr;s/step compared with former 10 &mgr;s/step. In spite of the faster scanning, we can observe better quality of OCT images of hard and soft dental tissues in-vitro and in-vivo measurements.
We propose a new method to increase the sensitivity of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) beyond the conventional
shot noise limit using optical amplifiers. Criterion for effective use of optical amplifiers for OCT is discussed.
Enhancement of OCT images is demonstrated with optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) OCT.
The superstructured-grating distributed-Bragg-reflector laser is a small (shorter than 1 mm in length) and
relatively cheap swept source for optical-frequency-domain- reflectometry optical coherence tomography (OFDR-OCT),
which practically enables use of multiple sources in a single OCT system. Simultaneous scanning of
multiple sources over different wavelength regions and at different wavelength values in the same wavelength
region enable improvement of the resolution and scanning speed, respectively. Those improvements have been
demonstrated using C-band and L-band SSG-DBR sources.
We have been developing a unique discretely swept optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) using superstructured-grating
distributed Bragg reflector (SSG-DBR) lasers. To increase resolution, four SSG-DBR lasers are being developed
to obtain spectral coverage of 160 nm in total. To increase speed of D-OFDI imaging, simultaneous scanning of multiple
sources with a parallel OFDI system and unique transversal scanning D-OFDI have been demonstrated. Introduction of
an optical amplifier can increase sensitivity beyond the conventional shot noise limit. A deep 12 mm depth range has
been demonstrated with the wavelength interval of 0.05 nm.
We demonstrate dispersion compensation by using a dispersion shifted fiber (zero dispersion at a wavelength
of 1550 nm) in an optical-frequency domain imaging (OFDI) - optical coherence tomography (OCT) system
for tooth imaging. In the system, we use a tunable laser diode operating in the 1550 nm wavelength region
(1533-1573 nm) as a light source, because we can expect a smaller absorption coefficient for the enamel layer of
a tooth than with a 1300 nm light source. This simple and cost-effective method provides an axial resolution
of 27 &mgr;m in air, which is the theoretically expected value, although the value is 36 &mgr;m without compensation.
By measuring an extracted human tooth with compensation, we also confirm the realization of greatly improved
contrast at the boundary between the enamel and dentin layers. This compensation technique might prove even
more effective if we use a light source with a wider wavelength range.
KEYWORDS: Optical coherence tomography, Data acquisition, Mirrors, Scanners, Tomography, Data transmission, Optical scanning, In vivo imaging, Biomedical optics, Light sources
We demonstrate a novel imaging technique for high-speed optical-frequency domain imaging (OFDI)with a discretely swept laser source. In this technique, one frame of OCT data can be acquired within a single frequency sweep. Tomographic images consisting of 1550 A-lines are obtained at 21 frames per second. The method is explained and experimental results are demonstrated.
We measure an extracted tooth by OFDR-OCT. Three-dimensional reconstruction is performed against OCT images. Non-telecentric scanning is reproduced in three-dimensions and refractive image distortions are corrected by ray tracing.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) system based on optical frequency-domain reflectometry (OFDR) has been developed using a superstructure-grating distributed Bragg reflector (SSG-DBR) laser, which can tune the wavelength from 1533 to 1574 nm stepwise with tuning speed of 10micro s per 0.1 nm step. Theoretical expressions of OCT imaging by the discretely swept OFDR-OCT system are described. OFDR-OCT images are demonstrated for a few biological tissues; an extracted canine, human skin, human nail, and anterior segment of enucleated porcine eye.
Recently, frequency-domain (FD) -optical-coherence-tomography (OCT) methods have been
investigated extensively as more efficient and sensitive system compared with
conventional time-domain (TD) -OCT.
Superstructure-grating-distributed-Bragg-reflector (SSG-DBR) lasers are particularly
suited for optical-frequency-domain-reflectometry (OFDR) -OCT with its wide wavelength tunability
and frequency agility.
We have made a discrete frequency OFDR-OCT system with an SSG-DBR laser,
which can tune the wavelength
from 1533 to 1574 nm with tuning speed of 10μs per 0.1 nm step.
The theoretical expression of the discrete frequency OFDR-OCT is given.
Utilizing near-transparent nature of enamel of teeth in the wavelength region of
the SSG-DBR laser and long object range of the OFDR-OCT, we have carried out
OCT measurements on teeth. Experimental
OCT imaging of a canine are reported here.
A new technique, called spatio-spectral digital holography, is proposed. The technique is based on the combination of the principles of a spectral interference microscope and digital holography, where the spectral interferometry provides the function of full-field tomographic imaging, and digital holography gives a microscope objective the function of adaptive numerical focusing. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate the validity of the proposed principle.
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