Optical coherence tomography device and control program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9687147-B2
Application number	US-201514955579-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 1, 2015
Priority date	Dec 2, 2014
Publication date	Jun 27, 2017
Grant date	Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

An optical coherence tomography device includes an OCT optical system; a processor. The processor executes: an image generation processing of processing first OCT signals, and generating, based on the first OCT signals, a three-dimensional motion contrast image which is obtained by imaging a moving object in the scanning position; a Doppler shift detection processing of detecting Doppler shift in a scanning position specified on the three-dimensional motion contrast image, the plurality of second OCT signals being detected at timings different from the timings when the plurality of first OCT signals are detected; and a velocity obtaining processing of obtaining an absolute velocity of the moving object based on the Doppler shift detected by the Doppler shift detection processing and a three-dimensional structure of the test subject obtained from the three-dimensional motion contrast image generated by the image generation processing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An optical coherence tomography device comprising:
an OCT optical system including a scanner configured to scan a test subject by measurement light, the OCT optical system being configured to detect an OCT signal generated based on the measurement light and reference light corresponding to the measurement light;
a processor; and
memory storing instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the optical coherence tomography device to execute:
an image generation processing of processing a plurality of first OCT signals, which are temporally different from each other with respect to a same position on the test subject, and generating, based on the plurality of first OCT signals, a three-dimensional motion contrast image, which is obtained by imaging distribution of a moving object in a depth direction in each of the scanning position;
a Doppler shift detection processing of processing a plurality of second OCT signals which are temporally different from each other with respect to the same position on the test subject, and detecting Doppler shift in a depth direction in a scanning position specified on the three-dimensional motion contrast image, the plurality of second OCT signals being detected at timings different from the timings when the plurality of first OCT signals are detected; and
a velocity obtaining processing of obtaining an absolute velocity of the moving object based on the Doppler shift detected by the Doppler shift detection processing and a three-dimensional structure of the test subject obtained from the three-dimensional motion contrast image generated by the image generation processing.

2. The optical coherence tomography device according to claim 1 further comprising an observation optical system configured to obtain an observation image of the test subject,
wherein the instructions when executed by the processor causes the optical coherence tomography device to execute:
an association processing of associating the scanning position specified on the three-dimensional motion contrast image with the observation image obtained by the observation optical system;
a deviation detection processing of detecting positional deviation between the observation image associated with the scanning position and a current observation image obtained by the observation optical system by image processing; and
a scanning position correction processing of controlling driving of the scanner based on a detection result of the positional deviation detected by the deviation detection processing and correcting the scanning position of the measurement light used at the time of detecting the Doppler shift.

3. The optical coherence tomography device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a signal receiver configured to receive an operation signal output from an operation unit by an operation of an examiner;
wherein the instructions when executed by the processor causes the optical coherence tomography device to execute:
a first scanning position setting processing of setting, as a scanning position of the measurement light used at the time of detecting the Doppler shift, a position which is specified on the three-dimensional motion contrast image based on the operation signal received by the signal receiver.

4. The optical coherence tomography device according to claim 1 , wherein the velocity obtainment processing obtains a three-dimensional structure of a blood vessel of the test subject based on the three-dimensional motion contrast image generated by the image generation processing, and obtains an absolute blood flow velocity, based on the Doppler shift detected by the Doppler shift detection processing and the three-dimensional structure of the blood vessel of the test subject.

5. The optical coherence tomography device according to claim 1 , wherein
the instructions when executed by the processor causes the optical coherence tomography device to execute:
a second scanning position setting processing of obtaining a movement direction of the moving object based on the three-dimensional structure of the test subject and setting a scanning position in a direction orthogonal to the obtained movement direction.

6. The optical coherence tomography device according to claim 3 , wherein
the three-dimensional structure of the test subject is a three-dimensional structure of a blood vessel, and
the first scanning position setting processing obtains a size of a diameter of the blood vessel based on the three-dimensional structure of the blood vessel and sets a scan width of the measurement light to be greater than the obtained size of the blood vessel diameter.

7. The optical coherence tomography device according to claim 1 , wherein
the instructions when executed by the processor causes the optical coherence tomography device to execute:
a blood vessel structure obtaining processing of obtaining a three-dimensional structure of a blood vessel of the test subject based on the three-dimensional motion contrast image generated by the image generation processing, and
a time interval control processing of obtaining a diameter of the blood vessel based on the three-dimensional structure of the blood vessel and changing a time interval of irradiation with respect to the same position according to the obtained size of the blood vessel diameter.

8. The optical coherence tomography device according to claim 2 , wherein the observation optical system includes an infrared imaging optical system configured to image the test subject by using infrared light.

9. The optical coherence tomography device according to claim 2 , wherein the observation optical system includes a scanning laser ophthalmic optical system configured to image the test subject by using a confocal optical system.

10. The optical coherence tomography device according to claim 1 , wherein
the instructions when executed by the processor causes the optical coherence tomography device to execute:
a first control processing of obtaining the plurality of first OCT signals for each of a plurality of scan lines by controlling the scanner in such a manner that each of the plurality of scan lines is scanned plural times with the measurement light.

11. The optical coherence tomography device according to claim 1 , wherein
the instructions when executed by the processor causes the optical coherence tomography device to execute:
a second control processing of obtaining the plurality of second OCT signals by controlling the scanner in such a manner that a scan line corresponding to the scanning position specified on the three-dimensional motion contrast image is scanned plural times with the measurement light.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a control program used in an optical coherence tomography device including an OCT optical system including a scanner configured to scan a test subject by measurement light, the OCT optical system being configured to detect an OCT signal generated based on the measurement light and reference light corresponding to the measurement light, the control program, when executed by a processor of the optical coherence tomography device, causing the optical coherence tomography device to execute:
an image generation processing of processing a plurality of first OCT signals, which are temporally different from each other with respect to a same position on the test subject, and generating, based on the plurality of first OCT signals, a three-dimensional motion contrast image, which is obtained by imaging distribution of a moving object in a depth direction in each of the scanning position;
a Doppler shift detection processing of processing a plur

Assignees

• Nidek Kk

Inventors

• Furuuchi Yasuhiro
• Hanebuchi Masaaki
• Endo Masakazu
• Namiki Hajime
• Takeno Naoki

Classifications

• G01B9/02091

  Tomographic interferometers, e.g. based on optical coherence · CPC title

• A61B3/102 Primary

  for optical coherence tomography [OCT] · CPC title

• A61B3/1005

  for measuring distances inside the eye, e.g. thickness of the cornea (A61B3/11 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A61B3/0025

  characterised by electronic signal processing, e.g. eye models · CPC title

• G01B9/02045

  using the Doppler effect · CPC title