OCT sidelobe suppression method based on dual-path phase sinusoidal modulation and minimum value fusion.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Medical Imaging Technology

Background:

• Sidelobe artifacts in optical coherence tomography (OCT) images degrade image quality.
• These artifacts, originating from strong signals, can be mistaken for actual tissue, hindering accurate diagnosis.
• Existing sidelobe suppression techniques often lack efficacy, especially with complex samples.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel and effective method for sidelobe suppression in OCT images.
• To improve the clarity and diagnostic accuracy of OCT imaging by mitigating artifacts.

Main Methods:

• A dual-path phase sinusoidal modulation technique is proposed.
• The method utilizes Hilbert and inverse Hilbert transforms to extract phase angles.
• Minimum value fusion combines modulated signals for sidelobe suppression.

Main Results:

• The proposed method achieved a maximum sidelobe suppression of 50.1 dB.
• The full width at half-maximum of the point spread function was reduced to 53% compared to traditional methods.
• Significant improvement in OCT image clarity was demonstrated on various samples.

Conclusions:

• The dual-path phase sinusoidal modulation and minimum value fusion method effectively suppresses sidelobe artifacts in OCT.
• This technique offers a substantial improvement in image quality and diagnostic potential for OCT.
• The method demonstrates superior performance over traditional approaches for sidelobe reduction.