Pulse photothermal optical coherence tomography for multimodal hemodynamic imaging.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Medical Imaging
• Optical Coherence Tomography

Background:

• Traditional photothermal optical coherence tomography (PTOCT) faces challenges in separating photothermal and Doppler phases.
• Multimodal hemodynamic imaging requires simultaneous acquisition of various physiological parameters.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce pulse photothermal optical coherence tomography (P-PTOCT) for multimodal hemodynamic imaging.
• To address the phase separation challenge in traditional PTOCT.
• To enable simultaneous acquisition of blood flow, light absorption, and drug concentration information.

Main Methods:

• Development of P-PTOCT technique.
• Proposal of an even number differential demodulation algorithm.
• Separation of photothermal and Doppler phases from a single data set.

Main Results:

• Simultaneous imaging of blood flow distribution, light absorption distribution, and concentration.
• Successful separation of photothermal and Doppler phases using the proposed algorithm.
• Photothermal phase correlates with drug concentration trends, enabling potential quantitative plasma concentration measurement.

Conclusions:

• P-PTOCT offers a solution for multimodal hemodynamic imaging.
• The developed algorithm effectively separates crucial phase information.
• This technique provides a valuable tool for clinical research in cerebral ischemia and rapid perfusion and concentration assessment.