Stevens Institute extracts new details from OCT of heart development

15 Jan 2025

Interactive software tool produces cutaway views of complex 3D structures.

A project at Stevens Institute of Technology has developed a software tool able to reveal previously unseen time-dependent details of tissues imaged with OCT.

Reported in Biomedical Optics Express, the software provides "unprecedented capabilities to see inside 3D images," said the team.

The tool, now released as open-source software for use by other researchers, builds on the use of splines in 3D modelling, in which smooth curved paths passing through sets of best-fit points are used to outline and model complex shapes.

This approach is well established, but is limited by the basic geometrical simplicity of the planes used, noted the project in its paper, with convoluted biological structures being more difficult to model this way.

The Stevens Institute approach is a new computational method of "clipping" a volume to extract information inside, creating a clipping spline able to give a cutaway view of 3D items and track changes over time. This was applied to OCT images of embryonic mouse heart development, to reveal dynamics of the organ's growth.

"An improved understanding of heart development could help inform new clinical strategies in managing congenital heart diseases, which are the most common type of birth defects," said Shang Wang from Stevens Institute of Technology.

"Such insights are also foundational for designing innovative strategies of regenerating heart tissue after damage from a heart attack, improving the cardiac function."

Managing congenital diseases with OCT data

Stevens Institute's previous studies of embryo hearts include imaging the action of the organ in a mouse through post-synchronizing sequences of OCT images, revealing details of the biodynamics underway.

To test its new numerical approach the clipping spline tool was applied to OCT images of the embryonic heart over 12.8 hours during the cardiac looping stage, a key process in which the heart tube bends and twists, forming a convoluted shape with developments in internal structure and blood flow patterns.

This is a vital stage of heart development and responsible for a range of congenital defects, but little is known about the dynamics and processes that take place during this period, commented Shang Wang. Although the changes can be imaged, there have been only limited tools available to visualize and analyze them.

Using the clipping spline, 4D OCT data of the developing embryonic mouse hearts revealed the processes of cardiac looping and formation of the heart's sinus venosus chamber, as well as changes in cardiac pumping dynamics. The computational pipeline was optimized to make the clipping spline a real-time tool for generating and adjusting cutaway views into the volume of the heart.

"It is simply amazing to see these developmental processes taking place, and it inspires new thoughts and hypotheses that could lead to significant insights into how the mammalian heart develops," said Wang.

"Studying and understanding biological development is not only essential for improving the clinical management of congenital diseases but is also foundational for many other biomedical areas, such as cancer and regenerative medicine."