Microvascular contrast enhancement in optical coherence tomography using microbubbles

Gas microbubbles (MBs) are investigated as intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) contrast agents. Agar + intralipid scattering tissue phantoms with two embedded microtubes were fabricated to model vascular blood flow. One was filled with human blood, and the other with a mixture of human blood + MB. Swept-source structural and speckle variance (sv) OCT images, as well as speckle decorrelation times, were evaluated under both no-flow and varying flow conditions. Faster decorrelation times and higher structural and svOCT image contrasts were detected in the presence of MB in all experiments. The effects were largest in the svOCT imaging mode, and uniformly diminished with increasing flow velocity. These findings suggest the feasibility of utilizing MB for tissue hemodynamic investigations and for microvasculature contrast enhancement in OCT angiography.