Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive, micrometer-scale imaging modality that has become a clinical standard in ophthalmology. By raster-scanning the retina, sequential cross-sectional image slices are acquired to generate volumetric data. In-vivo imaging suffers from discontinuities between slices that show up as motion and illumination artifacts. We present a new illumination model that exploits continuity in orthogonally raster-scanned volume data. Our novel spatiotemporal parametrization adheres to illumination continuity both temporally, along the imaged slices, as well as spatially, in the transverse directions. Yet, our formulation does not make inter-slice assumptions, which could have discontinuities. This is the first optimization of a 3D inverse model in an image reconstruction context in OCT. Evaluation in 68 volumes from eyes with pathology showed reduction of illumination artifacts in 88\% of the data, and only 6\% showed moderate residual illumination artifacts. The method enables the use of forward-warped motion corrected data, which is more accurate, and enables supersampling and advanced 3D image reconstruction in OCT.

翻译：光学相干层析成像（OCT）是一种非侵入式、微米级分辨率的成像技术，已成为眼科临床标准。通过光栅扫描视网膜，获取连续的横截面图像切片，从而生成体积数据。活体成像中，切片间的不连续性会表现为运动伪影和光照伪影。我们提出一种新的光照模型，该模型利用正交光栅扫描体积数据中的连续性。我们的新型时空参数化同时遵循时间维度（沿成像切片方向）和空间维度（横向方向）的光照连续性。然而，我们的公式不做可能导致不连续性的切片间假设。这是OCT图像重建领域中首次对三维逆模型进行优化。在68个病理眼体积数据上的评估表明，88%的数据中光照伪影得到减少，仅6%的数据中存在中等程度的残留光照伪影。该方法能够使用前向扭曲运动校正数据（该数据精度更高），并支持超采样和高级三维图像重建。