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Marker-Free Tracking of Facet Capsule Motion Using Polarization-Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography

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Abstract

We proposed and tested a method by which surface strains of biological tissues can be captured without the use of fiducial markers by instead, utilizing the inherent structure of the tissue. We used polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS OCT) to obtain volumetric data through the thickness and across a partial surface of the lumbar facet capsular ligament during three cases of static bending. Reflectivity and phase retardance were calculated from two polarization channels, and a power spectrum analysis was performed on each a-line to extract the dominant banding frequency (a measure of degree of fiber alignment) through the maximum value of the power spectrum (maximum power). Maximum powers of all a-lines for each case were used to create 2D visualizations, which were subsequently tracked via digital image correlation. In-plane strains were calculated from measured 2D deformations and converted to 3D surface strains by including out-of-plane motion obtained from the PS OCT image. In-plane strains correlated with 3D strains (R 2 ≥ 0.95). Using PS OCT for marker-free motion tracking of biological tissues is a promising new technique because it relies on the structural characteristics of the tissue to monitor displacement instead of external fiducial markers.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (U01 EB016638 and T32 AR050938). Computations were made possible by a resources grant from the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, and we thank Dr. Theoden Netoff for valuable conversations and insight.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Amy A. Claeson, Adam J. Black, Taner Akkin & Victor H. Barocas

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Yi-Jou Yeh

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  1. Amy A. Claeson
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  2. Yi-Jou Yeh
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  3. Adam J. Black
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  4. Taner Akkin
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  5. Victor H. Barocas
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Correspondence to Victor H. Barocas.

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Associate Editor James Tunnell oversaw the review of this article.

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Claeson, A.A., Yeh, YJ., Black, A.J. et al. Marker-Free Tracking of Facet Capsule Motion Using Polarization-Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography. Ann Biomed Eng 43, 2953–2966 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-015-1349-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-015-1349-9

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