Rotationally acquired four-dimensional optical coherence tomography of embryonic chick hearts using retrospective gating on the common central A-scan

• Published in: Journal of Biomedical Optics 2011-09, Vol.16 (9), p.096007-096007
• Main Authors: Happel, Christoph M, Yelbuz, Talt M, Thommes, Jan, Ortmaier, Tobias, Heimann, Bodo, Thrane, Lars, Mnner, Jrg
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algorithms; Animals; Chick Embryo; Chickens; Chicks; Gating and risering; Heart; Heart - anatomy & histology; Heart - embryology; Heart - physiology; Image acquisition; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods; Optical Coherence Tomography; Reproducibility of Results; Rotational; Tomography, Optical Coherence - methods
• ISSN: 1083-3668; 1560-2281; 1560-2281
• DOI: 10.1117/1.3622491

We introduce a new method of rotational image acquisition for four-dimensional (4D) optical coherence tomography (OCT) of beating embryonic chick hearts. The rotational axis and the central A-scan of the OCT are identical. An out-of-phase image sequence covering multiple heartbeats is acquired at every angle of an incremental rotation of the deflection mirrors of the OCT system. Image acquisition is accomplished after a rotation of 180°. Comparison of a displayed live M-mode of the central A-scan with a reference M-mode allows instant detection of translational movements of the embryo. For calculation of 4D data sets, we apply an image-based retrospective gating algorithm using the phase information of the common central A-scan present in all acquired images. This leads to cylindrical three-dimensional data sets for every time step of the cardiac cycle that can be used for 4D visualization. We demonstrate this approach and provide a video of a beating Hamburger and Hamilton stage 16 embryonic chick heart generated from a 4D OCT data set using rotational image acquisition.