Optical coherence tomography angiography for mapping cerebral microvasculature based on normalized differentiation...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Imaging
• Neuroscience
• Medical Technology

Background:

• Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a noninvasive imaging technique for visualizing microvascular networks.
• Accurate and efficient blood flow quantification is crucial for OCTA applications, especially in neuroscience.
• Existing OCTA methods may require complex computations and lengthy processing times.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate a novel normalized differentiation method for OCTA.
• To assess the method's capability for mapping cerebral microvasculature and quantifying blood flow.
• To demonstrate the method's suitability for studying dynamic changes in cerebral blood flow, including during ischemic events.

Main Methods:

• Development of a normalized differentiation algorithm for OCTA data processing.
• Validation of the method using a flow phantom to correlate normalized differentiation values with blood flow velocities.
• Application of the method to a rat cerebral cortex model to image microvasculature and monitor blood flow before and after induced ischemia.

Main Results:

• The normalized differentiation method demonstrated a nearly linear relationship between calculated values and blood flow velocities in a phantom.
• High-quality microvascular images of the rat cerebral cortex were generated using the proposed OCTA analysis.
• The method successfully monitored spatiotemporal dynamics of cerebral blood flow changes following localized ischemia.

Conclusions:

• The normalized differentiation method provides a simple, fast, and effective approach for OCTA analysis of cerebral microvasculature.
• This technique enables high-quality imaging and robust monitoring of blood flow dynamics in vivo.
• The method holds promise for research and clinical applications involving cerebrovascular diseases and functional neuroimaging.