Robust intravascular optical coherence elastography by line correlations

Phys Med Biol. 2007 May 7;52(9):2445-58. doi: 10.1088/0031-9155/52/9/008. Epub 2007 Apr 10.

Abstract

We present a new method for intravascular optical coherence elastography, which is robust against motion artefacts. It employs the correlation between adjacent lines, instead of subsequent frames. Pressure to deform the tissue is applied synchronously with the line scan rate of the optical coherence tomography (OCT) instrument. The viability of the method is demonstrated with a simulation study. We find that the root mean square (rms) error of the displacement estimate is 0.55 microm, and the rms error of the strain is 0.6%. It is shown that high-strain spots in the vessel wall, such as observed at the sites of vulnerable atherosclerotic lesions, can be detected with the technique.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Blood Vessels / pathology*
  • Computer Simulation*
  • Coronary Artery Disease / diagnosis
  • Coronary Artery Disease / pathology
  • Elasticity
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Phantoms, Imaging
  • Tomography, Optical Coherence / methods*