Polarization‐sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS‐OCT) enables three‐dimensional imaging of biological tissues based on the inherent contrast provided by scattering and polarization properties. In fibrous tissue such as the white matter of the brain, PS‐OCT allows quantitative mapping of tissue birefringence. For the popular PS‐OCT layout using a single circular input state, birefringence measurements are based on a straight‐forward evaluation of phase retardation data. However, the accuracy of these measurements strongly depends on the signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) and is prone to mapping artifacts when the SNR is low. Here we present a simple yet effective approach for improving the accuracy of PS‐OCT phase retardation and birefringence measurements. By performing a noise bias correction of the detected OCT signal amplitudes, the impact of the noise floor on retardation measurements can be markedly reduced. We present simulation data to illustrate the influence of the noise bias correction on phase retardation measurements and support our analysis with real‐world PS‐OCT image data.

中文翻译：

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偏振敏感OCT通过简单的噪声校正提高定量双折射成像的精度及其在神经成像中的应用

偏振敏感的光学相干断层扫描（PS-OCT）可以根据散射和偏振特性提供的固有对比度对生物组织进行三维成像。在脑白质等纤维组织中，PS-OCT可以定量绘制组织双折射。对于使用单个圆形输入状态的流行PS-OCT布局，双折射测量基于对相位延迟数据的直接评估。但是，这些测量的准确性在很大程度上取决于信噪比（SNR），并且在SNR低时很容易映射伪影。在这里，我们提出了一种简单有效的方法来提高PS-OCT相位延迟和双折射测量的准确性。通过对检测到的OCT信号幅度执行噪声偏置校正，可以显着降低本底噪声对延迟测量的影响。我们提供了仿真数据来说明噪声偏差校正对相位延迟测量的影响，并通过实际的PS-OCT图像数据来支持我们的分析。