Quantitative analysis of cardiomyocyte dynamics with optical coherence phase microscopy

Spectral domain optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is an interferometric imaging technique for three-dimensional reconstruction of biological samples. Phase sensitive implementation of OCM has generally been in common path interferometer configuration to obtain high phase stability, which limits the numerical aperture of the imaging optics and the transverse resolution. Here, we describe the implementation of optical coherence phase microscope in asymmetric Linnik interferometer configuration, which provides phase stability of 0.5 milliradians along with high spatial resolution. Three-dimensional structural images and dynamic displacement images obtained from spontaneously active cardiomyocytes demonstrate that the phase information could potentially be used for quantitative analysis of contraction dynamics, spatially resolved to sub-cellular structures.