Delineation of three-dimensional tumor margins based on normalized absolute difference mapping via volumetric optical coherence tomography.

The extent of surgical resection is an important prognostic factor in the treatment of patients with glioblastoma. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging is one of the adjunctive methods available to achieve the maximal surgical resection. In this study, the tumor margins were visualized with the OCT image obtained from a murine glioma model. A commercialized human glioblastoma cell line (U-87) was employed to develop the orthotopic murine glioma model. A swept-source OCT (SS-OCT) system of 1300 nm was used for three-dimensional imaging. Based on the OCT intensity signal, which was obtained via accumulation of each A-scan data, an en-face optical attenuation coefficient (OAC) map was drawn. Due to the limited working distance of the focused beam, OAC values decrease with depth, and using the OAC difference in the superficial area was chosen to outline the tumor boundary, presenting a challenge in analyzing the tumor margin along the depth direction. To overcome this and enable three-dimensional tumor margin detection, we converted the en-face OAC map into an en-face difference map with x- and y-directions and computed the normalized absolute difference (NAD) at each depth to construct a volumetric NAD map, which was compared with the corresponding H&E-stained image. The proposed method successfully revealed the tumor margin along the peripheral boundaries as well as the margin depth. We believe this method can serve as a useful adjunct in glioma surgery, with further studies necessary for real-world practical applications.

Acoustic Velocity Measurement for Enhancing Laser UltraSound Imaging Based on Time Domain Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique.

A method to enhance laser ultrasound (LUS) image reconstruction with the time-domain synthetic aperture focusing technique (T-SAFT) is presented, in which the acoustic velocity is extracted in situ with curve fitting. The operational principle is provided with the help of a numerical simulation, and the confirmation is provided experimentally. In these experiments, an all-optic LUS system was developed by using lasers for both excitation and detection of ultrasound. The acoustic velocity of a specimen was extracted in situ by fitting a hyperbolic curve to its B-scan image. The needle-like objects embedded within a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) block and a chicken breast have been successfully reconstructed using the extracted in situ acoustic velocity. Experimental results suggest that knowing the acoustic velocity in the T-SAFT process is important not only in finding the depth location of the target object but also for producing a high resolution image. This study is expected to pave the wave to the development and usage of all-optic LUS for bio-medical imaging.

Implementation of Hemispherical Resonator Gyroscope with 3 × 3 Optical Interferometers for Analysis of Resonator Asymmetry.

A hemispherical resonator gyroscope (HRG) has been implemented by using a consumer wineglass as the resonator and 3 × 3 optical interferometers as the detectors. The poorness of the off-the-shelf wineglass as the resonator can be overcome by the high performance of the optical interferometer. The effects of asymmetries in stiffness and absorption of the resonator are analyzed theoretically and confirmed experimentally. We prove that the trace of the amplitude ratio of two n = 2 fundamental resonant modes of the resonator follows a straight line in a complex plane. By utilizing the straightness of the ratio and the high performance of the optical interferometer, we extract four real constant parameters characterizing the HRG system. Experimentally, by using a resonator having an average resonance frequency of 444 Hz and Q value of 1477.2, it was possible to measure the Coriolis force at the level of industrial grade. The bias stability was measured as small as 2.093°/h.