First-order field autocorrelation function analysis-based dynamic OCT for tissue viability assessment

This work introduces g₁-dOCT, which derives a dynamic index I_d from the first-order field autocorrelation function for long-term tissue viability assessment. The method encodes activity intensity directly as image brightness, offering intuitive interpretability without complex post-processing. Its key advantage lies in the stability of I_d across varying imaging conditions, enabling direct semi-quantitative comparison of tissue activity in longitudinal drug studies, particularly well-suited for pharmacological screening in high-throughput settings, such as multi-drug treatment of 3D tissue constructs in 48-well plates. Experimental validation on tumor slices during 46-hour chemotherapy and on dynamic hepatocyte apoptosis shows that g₁-dOCT maintains consistent performance over extended time courses, establishing it as a reliable tool for longitudinal tissue dynamics evaluation in large-scale drug screening.