Three-dimensional collagen fiber mapping and tractography of human uterine tissue using OCT
James P. McLean, Shuyang Fang, George Gallos, Kristin M. Myers, Christine P. Hendon
Abstract
Automatic quantification and visualization of 3-D collagen fiber architecture using Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) has previously relied on polarization information and/or prior knowledge of tissue-specific fiber architecture. This study explores image processing, enhancement, segmentation, and detection algorithms to map 3-D collagen fiber architecture from OCT images alone. 3-D fiber mapping, histogram analysis, and 3-D tractography revealed fiber groupings and macro-organization previously unseen in uterine tissue samples. We applied our method on centimeter-scale mosaic OCT volumes of uterine tissue blocks from pregnant and non-pregnant specimens revealing a complex, patient-specific network of fibrous collagen and myocyte bundles.