{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,4]],"date-time":"2026-06-04T18:16:03Z","timestamp":1780596963299,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"AIP Publishing","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,7]],"date-time":"2023-11-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1699315200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,7]],"date-time":"2023-11-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1699315200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000070","name":"National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["R01EB-030558"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01EB-030558"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000070","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100017540","name":"NHLBI Division of Intramural Research","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["R01HL-125084"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01HL-125084"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100017540","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000053","name":"National Eye Institute","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["R01EY-028662"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01EY-028662"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000053","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000070","name":"National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["R01EB-030024"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01EB-030024"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000070","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000181","name":"Air Force Office of Scientific Research","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["FA9550-20-1-0052"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FA9550-20-1-0052"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000181","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["pubs.aip.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Fractional-pixel CO2 laser therapy shows promise for treating the genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM). Nevertheless, it remains controversial in the field of female pelvic medicine. This is due to the inherent difficulties in obtaining noninvasive biopsies to evaluate the treatment's efficacy and safety objectively. To address this challenge, we developed a noninvasive intravaginal optical coherence tomography (OCT)\/OCT angiography (OCTA) endoscopic system, whose probe features a shape identical to the laser treatment probe. This system can provide high-resolution OCT images to identify the microstructure of vaginal tissue and visualize the vasculature network in vivo. We conducted clinical research on 25 post-menopausal patients with GSM. OCT\/OCTA scans were acquired at four different locations of the vagina (distal anterior, distal posterior, proximal anterior, and proximal posterior) during the whole laser treatment session. A U-Net deep learning model was applied to segment the vaginal epithelium for assessing vaginal epithelial thickness (VET). Blood vessel density and VET were quantified to monitor the efficacy of fractional-pixel CO2 laser therapy. Statistical correlation analyses between these metrics and other clinical scores were conducted, validating the utility of our system. This OCT\/OCTA endoscopic system has great potential to serve as a noninvasive biopsy tool in gynecological studies to screen, evaluate, and guide laser treatment for GSM.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1063\/5.0153461","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,7]],"date-time":"2023-11-07T13:43:33Z","timestamp":1699364613000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1063\/aip-crossmark-policy-page","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["OCT angiography in the monitoring of vaginal health"],"prefix":"10.1063","volume":"7","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-1442-5074","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Saijun","family":"Qiu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Beckman Laser Institute, University of California Irvine 1 , Irvine, California 92612, USA"},{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California Irvine 2 , Irvine, California 92612, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0008-5550-5571","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Afiba","family":"Arthur","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California Irvine Medical Center 3 , Orange, California 92868, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6141-1979","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yuchen","family":"Jiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beckman Laser Institute, University of California Irvine 1 , Irvine, California 92612, USA"},{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California Irvine 2 , Irvine, California 92612, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7368-240X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yusi","family":"Miao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beckman Laser Institute, University of California Irvine 1 , Irvine, California 92612, USA"},{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California Irvine 2 , Irvine, California 92612, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3468-9235","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yan","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beckman Laser Institute, University of California Irvine 1 , Irvine, California 92612, USA"},{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California Irvine 2 , Irvine, California 92612, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8722-2401","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jingyi","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beckman Laser Institute, University of California Irvine 1 , Irvine, California 92612, USA"},{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California Irvine 4 , Irvine, California 92612, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0479-9924","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yona","family":"Tadir","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beckman Laser Institute, University of California Irvine 1 , Irvine, California 92612, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Felicia","family":"Lane","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California Irvine Medical Center 3 , Orange, California 92868, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4584-4560","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhongping","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beckman Laser Institute, University of California Irvine 1 , Irvine, California 92612, USA"},{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California Irvine 2 , Irvine, California 92612, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"317","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"2023110713432701100_c1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"65","DOI":"10.6118\/jmm.2015.21.2.65","article-title":"The recent review of the genitourinary syndrome of menopause","volume":"21","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. 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