Speckle reduction in optical coherence tomography images using tissue viscoelasticity

J Biomed Opt. 2011 Feb;16(2):020506. doi: 10.1117/1.3548239.

Abstract

We present a technique to reduce speckle in optical coherence tomography images of soft tissues. An average is formed over a set of B-scans that have been decorrelated by viscoelastic creep strain. The necessary correction for the deformation-induced spatial distortions between B-scans is achieved through geometrical co-registration using an affine transformation. Speckle reduction by up to a factor of 1.65 is shown in images of tissue-mimicking soft fibrin phantoms and excised human lymph node tissue with no observable loss of spatial resolution.

Publication types

  • Letter

MeSH terms

  • Artifacts*
  • Elastic Modulus / physiology
  • Humans
  • Image Enhancement / methods*
  • Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Phantoms, Imaging
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Tomography, Optical Coherence / instrumentation*
  • Tomography, Optical Coherence / methods*
  • Viscosity