Observation of Planarian Regeneration by Optical Coherence Tomography with Statistical Tissue Analysis

光學同調斷層掃描系統具有非侵入式、無輻射汙染以及成像結果迅速等優勢，成為近代成熟發展之醫學影像系統之一。本文即是利用光學同調斷層掃描系統作為主要的研究工具，並針對具有發展再生醫學研究潛力之渦蟲做為一動物模型來進行研究。為了達到這個目的，實驗內容將比較切割前之渦蟲組織與切割後之渦蟲組織。控制變因為渦蟲之不同位置以及切割後所經過的時間。希望能完整的以光學同調斷層掃描結果描述渦蟲的再生。 研究所使用的分析方法為紋理統計分析。由光學斷層掃描系統所截取之B-Scan影像中選取一個感興趣之位置範圍，並建立其空間灰階相關矩陣。再由該矩陣進行運算得到各項紋理特徵參數，包括對比度、相關性、能量、同質性以及熵。再分別就不同時間、不同位置之各項紋理特徵參數進行比較。 在實驗的分析結果中可明顯的發現，紋理分析特徵參數可以有效的描述渦蟲在光學同調斷層掃描系統所拍攝之B-Scan影像之影像特性。對比度、相關性以及能量在特定範圍間，可以表示該選取位置區域之影像具有較高濃度之高灰階值粒子聚集。而相關性的大小可以評估該高灰階值粒子在各個方向上的排列是否具有高度的方向性。而同質性與亂度可以表示所得之訊號中雜訊對關心區域影像之影響。因此能夠以量化方式描述渦蟲的再生，希望能建立一套量化標準，去評估渦蟲的再生狀況，減少人為判斷之誤差，以提供再生醫學研究一種之輔助判準。 Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an established medical imaging technique. The key benefit of optical coherence tomography is non-invasive and instant imaging of live tissues without ionizing radiation. This study used OCT to investigate the planarian as a model for regenerative medicine. This experiment compares the tissue of the planarian before cutting and after cutting. Variables are the planarian’s different locations and the time elapsed after cutting. Hoping to completely describe the planarian regeneration with OCT. The statistical method used for describing tissue is texture features analysis. First, select a region of interest (ROIs) in the B-Scan image by OCT to establish its spatial gray level dependence matrices. Then calculate the texture features properties, including contrast, correlation, energy, homogeneity and entropy. Lastly, compare the different times and locations of the texture properties. The result showed that texture feature properties can effectively describe the B-Scan images of the planarian by OCT. Contrast, correlation and energy in the specific value can represent the high concentration of high gray level value particles gathering. Furthermore, the scale of correlation can also be assessed high gray level value particles are highly directional arrangement. The homogeneity and entropy can be expressed the impact of noise in the ROIs. It is possible to quantify the regeneration of planarian, hoping to establish a quantitative criteria to assess the state of regeneration and reduce errors of human judgment, in order to provide an auxiliary method in regenerative medicine studies