In vivo early detection of smoke-induced airway injury using 3-dimensional swept source optical coherence tomography

We report on the feasibility of rapid, high resolution, 3-dimensional swept source optical coherence tomography (3D SSOCT) to detect early airway injury changes following smoke inhalation exposure in a rabbit model. The SSOCT system obtains 3-D helical scanning using a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) motor based endoscope. Real-time 2-D data processing and image display at the speed of 20 frames per second are achieved by adopting the technique of shared-memory parallel computing. Longitudinal images are reconstructed via an image processing algorithm to remove motion artifacts caused by ventilation and pulse. We demonstrate the ability of the SSOCT system to detect increases in tracheal and bronchial airway thickness that occurs shortly after smoke exposure.