Doppler Optical Coherence Tomography

Color Doppler OCT allows imaging of blood flow in tissues. At the 1300 nm wavelength used in our system, the optical properties of blood are very similar to the surrounding tissue, so blood vessels are frequently undetectable in conventional magnitude OCT images.

Color Doppler Optical Coherence Tomography (CDOCT) images of in vivo hamster skin. The top image was created using the magnitude of the detected signal. Structural information (various layers of the skin) are seen in this image. The surface of the skin (epidermis) is at the top of the image.

The bottom image was created by looking at the spectrum of the returned signal to identify Doppler shifts caused by moving blood. Three blood vessels are seen in this image. After a series of CDOCT images are taken, a three dimensional reconstruction can be formed. Here, the blood vessels (red and blue) are seen, as are the interfaces of the skin (grey).

For additional information contact Dr. Jennifer Barton.

Please also refer to Publications for more resources.