Imaging a large number of samples is necessary to improve statistical robustness in biological assays. Using standard multiwell plates is not possible in usual light-sheet microscopes. One solution is to use an Oblique Plane Microscope (OPM), which is a special fluorescence light sheet microscope, with a single objective near to the sample. To avoid aberrations, OPM generally uses water or silicon immersion to match the refractive index of the sample. In this work we present an oil-immersed OPM and experimentally demonstrate the possibility of using a primary objective with a higher numerical aperture.
Over the past few decades, a multitude of optical imaging techniques have emerged. Among them, full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT) has gained significant importance in various biomedical applications. Indeed, FF-OCT stands out as a noninvasive and label-free imaging method capable of generating high-resolution 3D microscopic images of light-scattering biological specimens. However, FF-OCT approach is limited for in-vivo imaging and images from FF-OCT lack the specificity required for accurate diagnosis. Hence, there is a need to have access to in-vivo imaging and to incorporate additional contrast modalities, such as elastography, into the FF-OCT technique. Indeed, the combination of FF-OCT with shear wave elastography enables the quantitative assessment of tissue stiffness at a resolution of a few micrometers. In this context, we present a novel FF-OCT approach that enables single-shot acquisitions, making it well-suited for both in-vivo imaging and transient shear wave elastography.
Elastography is an emerging imaging technique that has already proved its clinical usefulness with MRI and ultrasound methods. In the last years, elastography methods have also been adapted to optical setups, expending its applications to new possibilities. In this presentation, we propose a generalization of the NCi method to partially coherent mechanical wave field. The method is first validated finite difference simulations and a proof of concept using optical, ultrasound and MRI commercial systems is presented.
Throughout the history of medicine, assessing stiffness through palpation has served as an indicator to gauge tissue health. Within our research team, we are advancing an innovative approach for full-field optical elastography, rooted in noise correlation analysis. This method leverages the relationship between the correlation function of a diffuse shear wave field and the time reversal of the shear wave field. By examining the correlation function, we then have access to an estimation of the shear wave speed, directly linked to tissue stiffness. Recent findings using this approach have shown great promise. However, in most cases, only the elasticity is quantified, despite the availability of additional information, such as viscosity, also present in the correlation function. In this paper, we introduce our initial outcomes in integrating noise correlation with artificial intelligence. More specifically, we employ a U-NET-based architecture to process noise correlation data.
The last few decades have seen the emergence of a huge number of optical imaging techniques. Among them, full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT) has become valuable for many biomedical applications. Indeed, FF-OCT is a noninvasive and label-free imaging technique that produces high-resolution 3D microscopic images of scattering biological samples. However, FF-OCT images alone lack of specificity for accurate diagnosis. That is why it is necessary to add new contrast modalities to FF-OCT technique such as elastography. Indeed, coupling FF-OCT with shear wave elastography allows quantitative estimation of the stiffness at a resolution of a few micrometers. We present here our first results on coupling single-shot off-axis FF-OCT (SO-FF-OCT) method with transient shear wave elastography method.
The stiffness of a biological tissue is a great indicator of its health state. Thus, adding quantitative stiffness to medical imaging systems could be a strong aid for diagnosis, notably in cases of small lesions or inaccessible tissues. In our team, we developed noise correlation elastography for full field coherent imaging technics such as digital holography or FFOCT). In the present study, we demonstrate the advantages of this method for the non-invasive quantification of mechanical anisotropy in fibrous biological tissues, both when validating it on finite-difference simulated data, in anisotropic tissue-mimicking polymer fantoms, and ex-vivo and in-vivo biological samples.
The last few decades have seen the emergence of a huge number of optical imaging techniques. Among them, full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT) has become valuable for many biomedical applications. Indeed, FF-OCT is a noninvasive and label-free imaging technique that produces high-resolution 3D microscopic images of scattering biological samples. Using FF-OCT approach for in-vivo imaging would enable the observation of cell-scale structures in living samples. Moreover, living samples have an active vascularization that can therefore be observed using Doppler imaging. We propose in this study a new FF-OCT approach that enables single-shot acquisitions which is suitable for in-vivo and Doppler imaging.
Full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT) enables high-resolution 3D imaging. FF-OCT is a noninvasive and label-free imaging technique that produces high-resolution microscopy images of scattering biological samples. During the last decade, FF-OCT has become invaluable for many biomedical applications. It requires the extraction of the amplitude and phase components from the interference signal, for which a phase-shifting algorithm is usually used. However, this algorithm is not well adapted for real-time observation of in-vivo samples, therefore limiting the use of FF-OCT for ¬in-vivo imaging and clinical transfer. We propose in this study a new approach in FF-OCT that enables single-shot acquisitions using off-axis digital holography principle with low spatially and temporally coherent source.
Quantitative elastography is performed using noise-correlation on full-field images acquired using digital holography. Experimental results in isotropic and anisotropic polymer samples are presented as well as stiffness images on biological tissues.
KEYWORDS: Elastography, Wave propagation, Tissues, Digital holography, Algorithm development, Video, Computer simulations, Speckle, Signal to noise ratio, Correlation function
Significance: Quantitative stiffness information can be a powerful aid for tumor or fibrosis diagnosis. Currently, very promising elastography approaches developed for non-contact biomedical imaging are based on transient shear-waves imaging. Transient elastography offers quantitative stiffness information by tracking the propagation of a wave front. The most common method used to compute stiffness from the acquired propagation movie is based on shear-wave time-of-flight calculations.
Aim: We introduce an approach to transient shear-wave elastography with spatially coherent sources, able to yield full-field quantitative stiffness maps with reduced artifacts compared to typical artifacts observed in time-of-flight.
Approach: A noise-correlation algorithm developed for passive elastography is adapted to spatially coherent narrow or any band sources. This noise-correlation-inspired (NCi) method is employed in parallel with a classic time-of-flight approach. Testing is done on simulation images, experimental validation is conducted with a digital holography setup on controlled homogeneous samples, and full-field quantitative stiffness maps are presented for heterogeneous samples and ex-vivo biological tissues.
Results: The NCi approach is first validated on simulations images. Stiffness images processed by the NCi approach on simulated inclusions display significantly less artifacts than with a time-of-flight reconstruction. The adaptability of the NCi algorithm to narrow or any band shear-wave sources was tested successfully. Experimental testing on homogeneous samples demonstrates similar values for both the time-of-flight and the NCi approach. Soft inclusions in agarose sample could be resolved using the NCi method and feasibility on ex-vivo biological tissues is presented.
Conclusions: The presented NCi approach was successful in computing quantitative full-field stiffness maps with narrow and broadband source signals on simulation and experimental images from a digital holography setup. Results in heterogeneous media show that the NCi approach could provide stiffness maps with less artifacts than with time-of-flight, demonstrating that a NCi algorithm is a promising approach for shear-wave transient elastography with spatially coherent sources.
We present here our latest results on noise correlation based optical elastography using off-axis digital elastography. In this study, noise correlation elastography is used to access quantitative measurement of stiffness anisotropy.
The principle is to numerically refocus the diffuse shear wave field at each pixel using noise-correlation algorithms. The refocusing gives not only access to the local shear wave wavelength directly related to the local shear wave speed but also to the mechanical anisotropy through the 2D shape of the refocusing.
The method is validated on finite difference simulation and first experimental measure is presented.
Digital holography enables the capture of phase and amplitude from a single camera frame with high sensitivity. Displacements induced by a shear-wave diffuse field are acquired at the surface of a scattering sample. From the acquisitions, the stiffness of the sample can be mapped using a time-reversal-based algorithm. The coupling of digital holography with a time-reversal method achieves full-field quantitative elastography without the need of a controlled or synchronized source of mechanical wave. We present here the validation of the method on tissue-mimicking polymer samples and latest results on ex-vivo and in-vivo biological samples.
Shear-wave elastography is based on the imaging of displacements induced by the propagation of shear-waves through a medium. A full-field off-axis digital holography setup is utilized here to image surface displacements with high sensitivity. A low frame-rate camera is combined with a stroboscopic approach to achieve propagation imaging. We present the latest results using time of flight and time-reversal-based methods to map stiffness from a propagation movie. The methods are tested on simulation images obtained using a finite difference algorithm. Experimental images with the optical setup on agarose test samples mimicking biological tissues and first results on an ex-vivo biological sample are presented.
Quantitative diffuse optical imaging has the potential to provide valuable functional information about tissue status, such as oxygen saturation or blood content to healthcare practitioners in real time. However, significant technical challenges have so far prevented such tools from being deployed in the clinic. Toward achieving this goal, prior research introduced methods based on spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI) that allow real-time (within milliseconds) wide-field imaging of optical properties but at a single wavelength. However, for this technology to be useful to clinicians, images must be displayed in terms of metrics related to the physiological state of the tissue, hence interpretable to guide decision-making. For this purpose, recent developments introduced multispectral SFDI methods for rapid imaging of oxygenation parameters up to 16 frames per seconds (fps). We introduce real-time, wide-field, and quantitative blood parameters imaging using spatiotemporal modulation of light. Using this method, we are able to quantitatively obtain optical properties at 100 fps at two wavelengths (665 and 860 nm), and therefore oxygenation, oxyhemoglobin, and deoxyhemoglobin, using a single camera with, at most, 4.2% error in comparison with standard SFDI acquisitions.
Most surgeries are currently performed subjectively, with outcomes that are largely dependent on the experience of the surgeon. Providing objective information about tissue that need to be resected or avoided could reduce the variability in surgical outcomes. Spatial Frequency Domain Imaging (SFDI) is a novel diffuse optical imaging method that has the potential to identify tissue viability over a large field of view. In this method, a spatial sinusoidal pattern is projected onto the tissue to get the optical properties of the tissue at each pixel. More recently, Single Snapshot of Optical Properties (SSOP) hase been developed to provide such image feedback in real-time within the specific constraints of surgery. However, while SSOP has been shown to provide information about tissues at a single wavelength in real-time, during surgical applications, it is critical to obtain spectrally-resolved functional information that can be easily interpreted by the surgeons. Optical properties at multiple wavelengths are therefore needed to correlate the absorption and scattering coefficients with the tissue functional and structural information.
In this work, we propose a novel method relying on spatio-temporal modulation of light to obtain multispectral optical properties in real time. A temporal-encoding method is used to distinguish different wavelengths by modulating each wavelength at a one particular chosen frequency. The temporally-modulated light is then used to project sinusoidal patterns onto the tissues for SSOP processing. The scene is then recorded with a fast camera to get multiple information in 3 dimensions: two spatial dimensions for SSOP and the third temporal dimension for wavelength. Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) is used to separate the modulation frequencies pixels by pixels, and each 2D image obtained for every wavelength is processed using SSOP to obtain absorption and scattering coefficients. Finally, the optical properties at each wavelength are used to provide functional and structural information about tissues. We validated this proof of concept using 2 wavelengths (665 and 860nm) during phantom measurements and in vivo by obtaining real-time oxygenation videos. This work lays the foundation for the clinical translation of real-time quantitative multispectral imaging.
We present a phase-shifting quantitative phase imaging technique providing high temporal and spatial phase stability and high acquisition speed. A piezoelectric microfabricated phase modulator allows tunable modulation frequencies up to the kHz range. After assessing the quantitative phase accuracy with technical samples, we demonstrate the high acquisition rate while monitoring cellular processes at temporal scales ranging from milliseconds to hours.
The photothermal optical lock-in optical coherence microscope (poli-OCM) introduced molecular specificity to OCM imaging, which is conventionally, a label-free technique. Here we achieve three-dimensional live cell and mitochondria specific imaging using ~4nm protein-functionalized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). These nanoparticles do not photobleach and we demonstrate they’re suitability for long-term time lapse imaging. We compare the accuracy of labelling with these AuNPs using classical fluorescence confocal imaging with a standard mitochondria specific marker. Furthermore, time lapse poli-OCM imaging every 5 minutes over 1.5 hours period was achieved, revealing the ability for three-dimensional monitoring of mitochondria dynamics.
Elasticity maps of tissue have proved to be particularly useful in providing complementary contrast to ultrasonic imaging, e.g., for cancer diagnosis at the millimeter scale. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) offers an endogenous contrast based on singly backscattered optical waves. Adding complementary contrast to OCT images by recording elasticity maps could also be valuable in improving OCT-based diagnosis at the microscopic scale. Static elastography has been successfully coupled with full-field OCT (FF-OCT) in order to realize both micrometer-scale sectioning and elasticity maps. Nevertheless, static elastography presents a number of drawbacks, mainly when stiffness quantification is required. Here, we describe the combination of two methods: transient elastography, based on speed measurements of shear waves induced by ultrasonic radiation forces, and FF-OCT, an en face OCT approach using an incoherent light source. The use of an ultrafast ultrasonic scanner and an ultrafast camera working at 10,000 to 30,000 images/s made it possible to follow shear wave propagation with both modalities. As expected, FF-OCT is found to be much more sensitive than ultrafast ultrasound to tiny shear vibrations (a few nanometers and micrometers, respectively). Stiffness assessed in gel phantoms and an ex vivo rat brain by FF-OCT is found to be in good agreement with ultrasound shear wave elastography.
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