Directional blood flow imaging in volumetric optical micro angiography achieved by digital frequency modulation

An effective digital frequency modulation approach to achieve directional blood flow imaging within microcirculations in tissue beds in vivo for optical microangiography is presented. The method only requires the system to capture one three-dimensional data set within which the interferograms are modulated by a constant frequency modulation that gives one directional flow information. The result is that the imaging speed is doubled and the computational load is halved. The method is experimentally validated by a flow phantom and is tested for imaging of cerebral vascular blood perfusion in a live mouse with the cranium left intact. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America