Two wavelength spectral domain optical coherence tomography systems for early stage chicken embryonic heart imaging

Blood Flow plays an important role during the early stage development of embryogenesis. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SDOCT), with high resolution and high acquisition speed, has been widely used in biological tissue imaging in recent years. By evaluation of phase difference between consecutive A-scan lines, SDOCT provides the ability for flow velocity measurement. In order to find the optimize SDOCT system for early stage chicken embryo heart outflow tract (OFT) flow measurement, two spectral domain optical coherence tomography setups were built in our lab with different central wavelength, i.e. 845nm and 1321nm. The performances of the two systems are compared and we found that the system with 1321nm wavelength is more suitable for this application since it has sufficient penetration depth.