MULTIMODAL OCT FOR ASSESSMENT OF VASCULATURE-TARGETED PDT SUCCESS

The main goal of the study was a vasculature targeted PDT. A new approach named M-mode-like OCT (MML OCT) was applied to monitor early response to PDT. Due to the chosen filtering parameters (96 Hz filter threshold), this approach visualizes only vessels with flowing blood. Without flowing blood even filled vessels are not visualized because flow-less blood causes speckle variations with significantly lower frequencies (< 50 Hz corresponding to speckle decorrelation time for stationary blood). This feature allows us to detect thrombosis of blood vessels, the results of MML OCT and histological examination being perfectly coinciding. The advantages of MML OCT such as a simple and fast process of obtaining microvasculature images and label-free nature of the visualization makes this method perspective in routine clinical monitoring of antitumor therapies.