Indocyanine green provides absorption and spectral contrast for optical coherence tomography at 840 nm in vivo

In recent years, there has been growing interest in the application of exogenous contrast agents to supplement the traditional strengths of optical coherence tomography (OCT) and provide additional biological information. In this Letter, we present how indocyanine green, a common fluorescent contrast agent approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, can provide absorption and spectral contrast for OCT imaging in the mouse eye in vivo. We further demonstrate high stability of spectral contrast measurements for the long-term monitoring of contrast agents in spite of fluctuations in intensity.