In vivo imaging of functional microvasculature within tissue beds of oral and nasal cavities by swept-source optical coherence tomography with a forward/side-viewing probe

We report three-dimensional (3D) imaging of microcirculation within human cavity tissues in vivo using a high-speed swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) at 1300 nm with a modified probe interface. Volumetric structural OCT images of the inner tissues of oral and nasal cavities are acquired with a field of view of 2 mm × 2 mm. Two types of disposable and detachable probe attachments are devised and applied to the port of the imaging probe of OCT system, enabling forward and side imaging scans for selective and easy access to specific cavity tissue sites. Blood perfusion is mapped with OCT-based microangiography from 3D structural OCT images, in which a novel vessel extraction algorithm is used to decouple dynamic light scattering signals, due to moving blood cells, from the background scattering signals due to static tissue elements. Characteristic tissue anatomy and microvessel architectures of various cavity tissue regions of a healthy human volunteer are identified with the 3D OCT images and the corresponding 3D vascular perfusion maps at a level approaching capillary resolution. The initial finding suggests that the proposed method may be engineered into a promising tool for evaluating and monitoring tissue microcirculation and its alteration within a wide-range of cavity tissues in the patients with various pathological conditions.