Systems and methods for in vivo visualization of lymphatic vessels with optical coherence tomography

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016000368-A1
Application number	US-201514789291-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 1, 2015
Priority date	Jul 1, 2014
Publication date	Jan 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present technology relates generally to systems and methods for in vivo visualization of lymphatic vessels. A system includes an optical coherence tomography (OCT) device and a computing device coupled to the OCT device configured to cause the OCT device to perform an OCT scan, generate image data in response to the OCT scan, and apply an eigendecomposition filter to the image data to produce processed image data. Alternatively or in addition, the computing device can compensate for scattering attenuation along an optical axis of the OCT scan in the image data set to generate compensated image data, enhance contrast of the compensated image data along a cross-section substantially orthogonal to the optical axis to generate contrast-enhanced image data, and identify at least one lymphatic vessel in the image data.

First claim

I/we claim:

1 . A system, comprising:
an optical coherence tomography (OCT) device; a processor coupled to the OCT device; a computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:
initiating an OCT scan with the OCT device;
generating image data in response to the OCT scan; and
applying an eigendecomposition filter to the image data to produce processed image data; and
a display coupled to the processor and configured to display the processed image data.

2 . The system of claim 1 wherein the eigendecomposition filter comprises a Hessian vesselness filter.

3 . The system of claim 1 wherein the operations further comprise identifying at least one lymphatic vessel based on the processed image data.

4 . The system of claim 3 wherein the operations further comprise generating a three-dimensional map of the lymphatic vessel.

5 . A method of visualizing lymphatic vessels in a body of a human patient, the method comprising:
generating an optical coherence image data set in response to an optical coherence tomography (OCT) scan of a portion of the body containing at least one lymphatic vessel; applying an eigendecomposition filter to the image data set; and identifying the at least one lymphatic vessel in the image data set.

6 . The method of claim 5 wherein applying the eigendecomposition filter to the image data set comprises applying a Hessian vesselness filter to the image data set.

7 . The method of claim 6 wherein applying the Hessian vesselness filter comprises:
calculating eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a Hessian matrix of the image data set; and
based on the calculated eigenvalues and eigenvectors, applying a vesselness function to identify at least one lymphatic vessel.

8 . The method of claim 7 wherein the vesselness function comprises:

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Assignees

• Univ Washington

Inventors

• Wang Ruikang K
• Yousefi Siavash
• Baran Utku

Classifications

• A61B5/0059

  using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence (photoacoustic A61B5/0093; optical measurement of heart rate A61B5/02416; optical measurement of blood flow A61B5/0261; optical measurement of analytes A61B5/1455) · CPC title

• A61B5/0066

  Optical coherence imaging · CPC title

• A61B5/725

  using specific filters therefor, e.g. Kalman or adaptive filters (specific diagnostics methods using using bioelectric or biomagnetic signals A61B5/316) · CPC title

• A61B5/0062

  Arrangements for scanning · CPC title

• A61B5/418 Primary

  lymph vessels, ducts or nodes · CPC title