Advances in Optical Coherence Elastography

Clinical detection of soft tissue biomechanics is of great significance for the early diagnosis, progress tracking and treatment evaluation of certain diseases. Optical coherence elastography (OCE) has been developed to visualize and quantify tissue biomechanics based on optical coherence tomography (OCT), in which to observe the static or dynamic mechanical responses of soft tissue organs under load excitation to quantify and reconstruct their biomechanical properties and thus to obtain the pathological information of diseased parts. Due to its advantages of non-invasive 3D imaging mode, real-time imaging treatment performance and high resolution, the OCE technique has the unique advantage and development potential in the clinical biomechanical measurement of soft tissue organs such as eyes. From the aspects of the static/dynamic excitation methods of OCE, the speckle tracking technology and phase sensitive detection technology of OCT, and the analytical and finite element analysis methods for biomechanical property quantification, we introduce the theory and method of OCE, review the development history of OCE, introduce and summarize in detail its newest achievements, and prospect its development trend.