Imaging of arterial plaque by quadrature swept-source optical coherence tomography with signal to noise ratio enhancements

Youxin Mao, Costel Flueraru, Shoude Chang

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DOI: 10.4236/jbise.2011.412093                

Abstract

Arterial plaque from a myocardial infarction-prone Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic (WHHLMI) rabbit is visualized and characterized using a signal to noise ratio enhanced swept-source optical coherence tomography system with a quadrature interferometer (QSS-OCT). A semiconductor optical amplifier is used in the sample arm to amplify the weak signal scattered from arterial plague. Signal to noise ratio improvement are demonstrated in our QSS-OCT system. This finding results into an increase of the penetration depth possible in OCT images, from 1 mm to 2 mm. Preliminary results show that vulnerable plaque with fibrous cap, macrophage accumulations and calcification in the arterial tissue are measurable with our QSS-OCT system.

Keywords

Optical Coherence Tomography; Arterial Plaque; Medical and Biological Imaging; Semiconductor Optical Amplifier

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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