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Updated: Aug 23, 2026

Simultaneous Brightfield, Fluorescence, and Optical Coherence Tomographic Imaging of Contracting Cardiac Trabeculae Ex Vivo
Published on: October 2, 2021
Near-infrared dyes as contrast-enhancing agents for spectroscopic optical coherence tomography
Chenyang Xu1, Jian Ye, Daniel L Marks
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana--Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Abstract:
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images of biological tissues often have low contrast. Spectroscopic optical coherence tomography (SOCT) methods have been developed to enhance contrast but remain limited because most tissues are not spectrally active in the frequency bands of laser sources commonly used in OCT. Near-infrared (NIR) dyes with absorption spectra features within the OCT source spectrum can be used for enhancing contrast in this situation. We introduce and demonstrate the use of NIR dyes as contrast agents for SOCT. Contrast-enhanced images are compared with fluorescence microscopy, demonstrating a link between SOCT and fluorescence imaging.
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