Quantitative measurement of intact bladder mechanics using optical coherence elastography

Bladder dysfunction is a prevalent condition that affects millions of people globally and can result from aging, fibrosis, or neurological disorders. These conditions often lead to impaired bladder compliance, significantly affecting patient’s quality of life. Current clinical techniques such as urodynamics provide only indirect or low-resolution information about bladder wall biomechanics, highlighting the need for new imaging approaches. Optical coherence elastography (OCE) offers high-resolution, noninvasive, and quantitative assessment of tissue mechanical properties. In this study, we apply a high-frequency OCE method to investigate the mechanical properties of bladder wall. A swept-source OCT system was combined with localized mechanical excitation to generate and track shear waves within the tissue. Using this approach, we imaged intact whole mouse bladders ex vivo. We observed increasing phase velocity with excitation frequency from 2 to 50kHz due to both the thin structure and the viscoelastic properties of the bladder wall. We use this technique to compare healthy bladders with formalin-treated bladders in a mouse model, enabling the investigation of biomechanical signatures under controlled pathophysiological perturbations. This work demonstrates that high-frequency OCE is a promising technique for noninvasive bladder elasticity mapping and lays the groundwork for future applications in urological diagnostics and research.