Novel approach for embryonic 4D quantitative OCT angiography

We introduce a novel 4D (3D + time) optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography approach for quantitative analysis of blood flow dynamics in embryonic mouse hearts. Our approach uses OCT to capture multiple cardiac cycles at each spatial location to enable retrospective alignment for reconstruction of the 4D heartbeat, segments the vasculature lumen based on speckle variance across subsequent cycles, and quantifies flow speeds with time-at-pixel data, particle size statistics, and cardiac periodicity. By integrating these techniques, we enable quantitative analysis of embryonic circulation and provide a platform for investigating blood flow as a biomechanical regulator of early heart development.