OCT image contrast improvement of skin tissue by using oleic acid as an enhancer

Abstract

Currently, one of the current limitations of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is its penetration depth and imaging contrast because of the fact that the complex morphological nature of biological tissue, especially skin tissue. In this work, we investigate the synergistic effect of oleic acid and propylene glycol on optical clearing of skin tissue in vitro, improve OCT imaging contrast and penetration depth. The results demonstrate the optical clearing effect after topical application of the hyperosmotic agents of PG80 (80% propylene glycol) and OA PG80 (0.1 M oleic acid in 80% propylene glycol), which enhances not only the depth-imaging capability, but also the imaging contrast of optical coherence tomography. It should be noticed that OA PG80 obtained the better effect in a shorter time than PG80 alone. Therefore, in terms of optical application and clinical safety, OA PG80 could be better choice to improve penetration depth and imaging contrast of OCT technique.