Accurate estimation of the attenuation coefficient from axial point spread function corrected OCT scans of a single layer phantom

The attenuation coefficient (AC) is a property related to the microstructure of tissue on a wavelength scale that can be estimated from optical coherence tomography (OCT) data. Since the OCT signal sensitivity is affected by the finite spectrometer/detector resolution called roll-off and the shape of the focused beam in the sample arm, ignoring these effects leads to severely biased estimates of AC. Previously, the signal intensity dependence on these factors has been modeled. In this paper, we study the dependence of the estimated AC on the beam-shape and focus depth experimentally. A method is presented to estimate the axial point spread function model parameters by fitting the OCT signal model for single scattered light to the averaged A-lines of multiple B-scans obtained from a homogeneous single-layer phantom. The estimated model parameters were used to compensate the signal for the axial point spread function and roll-off in order to obtain an accurate estimate of AC. The result shows a significant improvement in the accuracy of the estimation of AC after correcting for the shape of the OCT beam.