Systems and methods for reducing artifacts in oct angiography images

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, if executed by a processor, are configurable to cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• splitting, by the processor, a first set of OCT image data and a second set of OCT image data of a sample into multiple pairs of regions of interest, each pair of regions of interest of each set corresponding to approximately the same location on the sample, wherein the first set of OCT image data and the second set of OCT image data were taken at different times and at approximately the same location on the sample and at least some of the pair of regions of interest are at different depths within the sample;
• generating, by the processor, a non-uniform depth-dependent correction map by calculating along the depth dimension one or more of motion and intensity changes between each pair of regions from the first set of OCT image data and the second set of OCT image data;
• applying, by the processor, the depth-dependent correction map to the first set of OCT image data to correct one or more non-uniform changes along the depth dimension to define a depth-corrected first set of OCT image data, wherein the second set of OCT data remains not-depth-corrected by the depth-dependent correction map;
• and
• applying, by the processor, an OCT angiography processing technique on the depth-corrected first set of OCT image data and the not-depth-corrected second set of OCT image data to generate one or more OCT angiography images wherein the one or more OCT angiography images having reduced artifacts.

An apparatus comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a memory storing a computer program, the memory being in communication with the one or more processors and the one or more processors being configured to:
• split a first set of OCT image data and a second set of OCT image data captured at different times and at approximately the same location on a sample into multiple pairs of regions of interest, each pair of regions of interest of each set corresponding to approximately the same location on the sample, wherein at least some of the pair of regions of interest are at different depths within the sample;
• generate a non-uniform depth-dependent correction map by calculating along the depth dimension one or more of motion and intensity changes between each pair of regions from the first set of OCT image data and the second set of OCT image data;
• apply the depth-dependent correction map to the first set of OCT image data to correct one or more non-uniform changes along the depth dimension to define a depth-corrected first set of OCT image data, wherein the second set of OCT data remains not-depth-corrected by the depth-dependent correction map;
• and
• apply an OCT angiography processing technique on the depth-corrected first set of OCT image data and the not-depth-corrected second set of OCT image data to generate one or more OCT angiography images with reduced artifacts.