Compression optical coherence elastography with two-dimensional displacement measurement and local deformation visualization.

Current compression-based optical coherence elastography (OCE) only measures the axial displacement of a tissue, although the tissue also undergoes lateral displacement and microstructural alteration by the compression. In this Letter, we demonstrate a new compression-based OCE method that visualizes not only axial displacement, but also lateral displacement and microstructural decorrelation (MSD). This method employs complex correlation-based displacement and MSD measurements. It is implemented in a swept-source optical coherence tomography system with an active submicrometer compression. The performance of the method was demonstrated by measuring the porcine carotid artery and esophagus. The results showed significant axial and lateral displacements in the tissues by compression. An MSD map demonstrates high-contrast mechanical-property imaging.