Abstract

Blood substantially reduces image quality during intravascular OCT imaging. In this preliminary work, increasing the refractive index of the serum to that near the cytoplasm, or index matching, was used to increase penetration through blood. The hypothesis was tested by adding compounds to blood in an in vitro system. Increased penetration was noted for dextran and IV contrast which could not be explained by changes in hematocrit or hemoglobin. This study demonstrates the feasibility of index matching for dealing with the blood problem associated with intravascular OCT imaging.

© 2000 Optical Society of America