Graphics processing unit accelerated optical coherence tomography processing at megahertz axial scan rate and high resolution video rate volumetric rendering.

In this report, we describe how to highly optimize a computer unified device architecture based platform to perform real-time processing of optical coherence tomography interferometric data and three-dimensional (3-D) volumetric rendering using a commercially available, cost-effective, graphics processing unit (GPU). The maximum complete attainable axial scan processing rate, including memory transfer and displaying B-scan frame, was 2.24 MHz for 16 bits pixel depth and 2048 fast Fourier transform size; the maximum 3-D volumetric rendering rate, including B-scan, en face view display, and 3-D rendering, was ~23 volumes/second (volume size: 1024×256×200). To the best of our knowledge, this is the fastest processing rate reported to date with a single-chip GPU and the first implementation of real-time video-rate volumetric optical coherence tomography (OCT) processing and rendering that is capable of matching the acquisition rates of ultrahigh-speed OCT.