Murine heart wall imaging with optical coherence tomography

Abstract

M-mode imaging of the in vivo murine myocardium using optical coherence tomography (OCT) is described. Application of conventional techniques (e.g. MRI, Ultrasound imaging) for imaging the murine myocardium is problematic because the wall thickness is less than 1.5 mm (20 g mouse), and the heart rate can be as high as six hundred beats per minute. To acquire a real-time image of the murine myocardium, OCT can provide sufficient spatial resolution (10 μm) and imaging speed (1000 A-scans/s). Strong light scattering by blood in the heart causes significant light attenuation, which makes delineation of the endocardium-chamber boundary problematic. To measure the thickness change of the myocardium during one heart beat cycle, a myocardium edge detection algorithm is developed and demonstrated.