Two-dimensional phase unwrapping in Doppler Fourier domain optical coherence tomography

For phase-related imaging modalities using interferometric techniques, it is important to develop effective method to recover phase information that is mathematically wrapped. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a two-dimensional (2D) method to achieve effective phase unwrapping in Doppler Fourier-domain (FD) optical coherence tomography (OCT), and recover the discontinuous phase distribution in retinal blood flow successfully for the first time in Doppler OCT studies. The proposed method is based on phase gradient approach in the axial dimension, with phase denoising performed through 2D window moving average in the sampled phase image using complex Doppler OCT data. The 2D unwrapping is carried out to correct phase discontinuities in the wrapped Doppler phase map, and the abrupt phase changes can be identified and corrected accurately. The proposed algorithm is computationally efficient and easy to be implemented.