J Biomed Opt. 2022 Oct;27(10). doi: 10.1117/1.JBO.27.10.100501.
ABSTRACT
SignificanceLymphatic and peripheral nervous system imaging is of prime importance for monitoring various important pathologic processes including cancer development and metastasis, and response to therapy.AimOptical coherence tomography (OCT) is a promising approach for this imaging task but is challenged by the near-transparent nature of these structures. Our aim is to detect and differentiate semi-transparent materials using OCT texture analysis, toward label-free neurography and lymphography.ApproachWe have recently demonstrated an innovative OCT texture analysis-based approach that used speckle statistics to image lymphatics and nerves in-vivo that does not rely on negative contrast. However, these two near-transparent structures could not be easily differentiated from each other in the texture analysis parameter space. Here, we perform a rigorous follow-up study to improve upon this differentiation in controlled phantoms mimicking the optical properties of these tissues.ResultsThe results of the three-parameter Rayleigh distribution fit to the OCT images of six types of tissue-mimicking materials varying in transparency and biophysical properties demonstrate clear differences between them, suggesting routes for improved lymphatics-nerves differentiation.ConclusionsWe demonstrate a novel OCT texture analysis-based lymphatics-nerves differentiation methodology in tissue-simulating phantoms. Future work will focus on longitudinal in-vivo lymphangiography and neurography in response to cancer therapeutics toward adaptive personalized medicine.
PMID:36221173 | DOI:10.1117/1.JBO.27.10.100501
