Methods and Systems for Imaging Tissue Motion Using Optical Coherence Tomography

A system for measuring tissue motion within a living tissue comprising:

• an optical coherence tomography probe;
• an optical circulator;
• a coupler;
• a spectrometer;
• a digital pulsimeter;
• and
• a physical computer-readable storage medium;
• wherein the system acquires images from the living tissue,
• wherein the physical computer-readable storage medium has stored thereon instructions executable by a device to cause the device to perform functions to extract tissue motion from the acquired images, the functions comprising:
• acquiring waves induced by a cardiac pulse or other induced pulse from the subject;
• correcting the acquired images using motion compensation;
• determining, from the corrected images, a region for examination of the living tissue;
• defining a velocity wave for a velocity of motion within the region for examination for a given time;
• defining a pulse wave induced by the cardiac pulse or other induced pulse from the subject for the given time;
• correlating the velocity wave and the pulse wave in the region for examination;
• and
• isolating pulsatile motion in the region for examination from the corrected acquired images.