In vivo gated 4D imaging of the embryonic heart using optical coherence tomography.

We demonstrate the first in vivo gated 4D images of avian embryonic hearts by use of optical coherence tomography (OCT). We present a gated 4D dataset of an in vivo beating quail heart consisting of approximately 864,000 A-scans accumulated over multiple heartbeats. Generation of a gating trigger from a laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) signal, collected from an outlying vitelline vessel, enabled us to gate image acquisition to the cardiac cycle. To fully characterize the genesis and mechanisms of cardiac defects, a tool capable of assessing structure and function simultaneously at early stages of development is needed, and gated OCT has the capability to become such a tool.