In vivo PS-OCT needle probe scan of human skeletal muscle

Jeffrey M McBride; Michael J Hackmann; Sophia Nimphius; Barry Cense

doi:10.1364/BOE.446169

In vivo PS-OCT needle probe scan of human skeletal muscle

Biomed Opt Express. 2022 Feb 14;13(3):1386-1397. doi: 10.1364/BOE.446169. eCollection 2022 Mar 1.

Authors

Jeffrey M McBride^{1

2

3}, Michael J Hackmann^{4

5

3}, Sophia Nimphius², Barry Cense^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health & Exercise Science, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608, USA.
² School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, 6027, Australia.
³ Contributed equally.
⁴ School of Human Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia.
⁵ Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Western Australia, Perth, 6009, Australia.
⁶ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) derived birefringence values effectively identify skeletal muscle structural disruption due to muscular dystrophy and exercise-related muscle damage in animal models in ex vivo tissue. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if a PS-OCT needle probe inserted into the leg of a human subject could accurately identify various anatomical structures with implications for use as a diagnostic tool for the determination of skeletal muscle pathology. A healthy middle-aged subject participated in this study. A custom-built PS-OCT system was interfaced with a side-viewing fiber-optic needle probe inserted into the subject's vastus lateralis muscle via a motorized stage for 3D data acquisition via rotation and stepwise pullback. The deepest recorded PS-OCT images correspond to a depth of 6 mm beneath the dermis with structural images showing uniform, striated muscle tissue. Multiple highly birefringent band-like structures with definite orientation representing connective tissue of the superficial aponeurosis appeared as the depth of the needle decreased. Superficial to these structures the dominating appearance was that of adipose tissue and low birefringent but homogeneous scattering tissue. The data indicate that a PS-OCT needle probe can be inserted into live human skeletal muscle for the identification of relevant anatomical structures that could be utilized to diagnose significant skeletal muscle pathology.