Absolute depth-resolved optic axis measurement with catheter-based polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography

Imaging depth-resolved birefringence and optic axis orientation with polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) unveils details of tissue structure and organization that can be of high pathophysiologic, mechanistic, and diagnostic value. For catheter-based PS-OCT, the dynamic rotation of the fiber optic probe, in addition to the polarization effects of the system components, complicates the reliable and robust reconstruction of the sample's optic axis orientation. Addressing this issue, we present a new method for the reconstruction of absolute depth-resolved optic axis orientation in catheter-based PS-OCT by using the intrinsic retardance of the protecting catheter sheath as a stable guide star signal. Throughout the paper, we rigorously inspect the retardance and optic axis orientation of the sheath and validate our method by imaging a birefringent phantom with known optic axis orientation. Reconstructing the optic axis orientation of the phantom, placed at different locations around the catheter, we measured an average absolute deviation (AAD) for the mean optic axis orientation over cross-sectional images of 3.28°, even with significant bending stress on the catheter. This corresponds to an almost three-fold improvement compared to our earlier method (optic axis AAD of 9.41°). We finally highlight the capability of our reconstruction with stereotactic catheter-based PS-OCT of a fresh sheep brain.