NONINVASIVE IMAGING OF IN-VIVO BLOOD-FLOW VELOCITY USING OPTICAL DOPPLER TOMOGRAPHY

We report the development of an optical technique for noninvasive imag ing of in vivo blood flaw dynamics and tissue structures with high spa tial resolution (2-10 mu m) in biological systems. The technique is ba sed on optical Doppler tomography (ODT), which combines Doppler veloci metry with optical coherence tomography to measure blood flow velocity at discrete spatial locations. The exceptionally high resolution of O DT permits noninvasive in vivo imaging of both blood microcirculation and tissue structures surrounding the vessel, which has significance f or biomedical research and clinical applications. Tomographic imaging of in vivo blood flow velocity in the chick chorioallantoic membrane a nd in rodent skin is demonstrated. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America .