Phase-sensitive optical coherence elastography for mapping tissue microstrains in real time

The authors present a phase-sensitive optical coherence elastography (PSOCE) approach to image instantaneous tissue deformations, strain rates, and strains of soft tissue in real time with sensitivity at the nanometer scale. This method exploits the phase information available in the complex optical coherence tomography images and measures the phase changes between the successive B scans to resolve the instantaneous tissue deformations. The PSOCE system described is capable of producing localized microstrain rate and strain maps of tissue subjected to a dynamic compression in real time. They show that this approach is capable of resolving deformations as small as 0.26 nm.