Stable absolute flow estimation with Doppler OCT based on virtual circumpapillary scans

Doppler optical coherence tomography has the capability to measure blood flow quantitatively and in vivo. As only the axial component of the velocity can be assessed, the measurements have to be corrected for the angle of the vessels. We present a novel approach to extract quantitative flow data from circumpapillary scans in vivo on the human retina by registering the circular scan to a reference volume scan and extracting the angle directly from the volume. In addition, we perform phase unwrapping and interpolation of the flow under the assumption of a parabolic flow profile. We demonstrate the repeatability of the methods by applying it to different retinal vessels, achieving coefficients of variation of the average velocity of 3 to 8%. Results on the pulsatility and resistance index are also presented. (C)2010 Optical Society of America