Aging of deep venous thrombosis using polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography

Deep venous thrombosis is a global health problem with significant complications and high recurrence. Supporting the search for more effective therapies, polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) may offer diagnostic imaging to determine the age of thrombus and personalize treatment. To assess sensitivity to thrombus aging, the IVC of two rat cohorts were imaged in-vivo at 24 hours (acute) or 28 days (chronic) after thrombus creation. The PS-OCT metrics were capable of differentiating acute and chronic thrombi with 98.2% total accuracy. These results demonstrate that PS-OCT is sensitive to structural changes in thrombi and could help guide advanced thrombolytic therapies.