Hybrid averaging offers high-flow contrast by cost apportionment among imaging time, axial, and lateral resolution in optical coherence tomography angiography

Opt Lett. 2016 Sep 1;41(17):3944-7. doi: 10.1364/OL.41.003944.

Abstract

The current temporal, wavelength, angular, and spatial averaging approaches trade imaging time and resolution for multiple independent measurements that improve the flow contrast in optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). We find that these averaging approaches are equivalent in principle, offering almost the same flow contrast enhancement as the number of averages increases. Based on this finding, we propose a hybrid averaging strategy for contrast enhancement by cost apportionment. We demonstrate that, compared with any individual approach, the hybrid averaging is able to offer a desired flow contrast without severe degradation of imaging time and resolution. Making use of the extended range of a VCSEL-based swept-source OCT, an angular averaging approach by path length encoding is also demonstrated for flow contrast enhancement.

MeSH terms

  • Cost Allocation
  • Fluorescein Angiography / methods
  • Tomography, Optical Coherence / economics*
  • Tomography, Optical Coherence / methods