Integrated intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) - ultrasound (US) imaging system

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) are considered two complementary imaging techniques in the detection and diagnosis of atherosclerosis. OCT permits visualization of micron-scale features of atherosclerosis plaque, and IVUS offers full imaging depth of vessel wall. Under the guidance of IVUS, minimal amount of flushing agent will be needed to obtain OCT imaging of the interested area. We report on a dual-modality optical coherence tomography (OCT) - ultrasound (US) system for intravascular imaging. To the best of our knowledge, we have developed the first integrated OCT-US probe that combines OCT optical components with an ultrasound transducer. The OCT optical components mainly consist of a single mode fiber, a gradient index (GRIN) lens for light beam focusing, and a right-angled prism for reflecting light into biological tissue. A 40MHz PZT-5H side-viewing ultrasound transducer was fabricated to obtain the ultrasound image. These components were integrated into a single probe, enabling both OCT and ultrasound imaging at the same time. In vitro OCT and ultrasound images of a rabbit aorta were obtained using this dual-modality imaging system. This study demonstrates the feasibility of an OCT-US system for intravascular imaging which is expected to have a prominent impact on early detection and characterization of atherosclerosis.