We report dynamic optical coherence tomography (D-OCT) images of the organ of Corti (ooC) in ex vivo mouse cochleas. The ooC is responsible for transducing sound-evoked mechanical vibrations and amplifying them in the process of hearing. Thorough knowledge of the micromechanical properties of the ooC is required for understanding how hearing functions. Recently, OCT has emerged as a safe and effective tool to probe the inner workings of the cochlea and ooC. However, OCT is limited in its ability to directly resolve cellular architecture due to limited optical scattering-based contrast between different cell types. D-OCT is a label-free method capable of probing sub-resolution movements by analyzing speckle and phase information from standard OCT data as a function of time. We show that key structures in the ooC can be identified with D-OCT versus standard OCT, and that D-OCT has the potential to characterize the ooC and advance our understanding of the process of hearing.
We present a flexible catheter endoscope using a 3D printed miniature side-viewing reflective lens for OCT imaging. A reflective lens with a depth of field (DOF) of 3mm and a maximum spot size of 80 microns was first designed and optimized in OpticStudio (ZEMAX). The structure of the lens and the fiber mating part of the optic was then constructed using 2-photon polymerization technique, and a gold reflective coating was added as the final step for the reflective lens. The reflective lens was then glued to cleaved optical fiber, and the assembly was covered by a torque coil to allow rotation of the catheter endoscope. This endoscope was used with a fiber-optic rotary joint and custom-built Mach-Zehnder interferometer to acquire OCT images.
We describe the optimization and application of a multi-window approach for improved resolution, side-lobe suppression, and phase sensitivity. Using the Hann window as a reference, we show that 10 windows are sufficient to achieve 42% resolution improvement, -31 dB side-lobe intensity, and a 20% improvement in phase sensitivity. We explored the benefits of this windowing technique for OCT imaging using a prototype narrow-band laser, OCT vibrometry, and Doppler OCT for angiography. Experimental data are in good agreement with simulation. We believe it will be possible using this optimized approach to achieve real-time processing and display, despite the added computational load.
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