Abstract
We achieved human retinal imaging using visible-light optical coherence tomography (vis-OCT) guided by an integrated scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO). We adapted a spectral domain OCT configuration and used a supercontinuum laser as the illumating source. The center wavelength was 564 nm and the bandwidth was 115 nm, which provided a 0.97 µm axial resolution measured in air. We characterized the sensitivity to be 86 dB with 226 µW incidence power on the pupil. We also integrated an SLO that shared the same optical path of the vis-OCT sample arm for alignment purposes. We demonstrated the retinal imaging from both systems centered at the fovea and optic nerve head with 20° × 20° and 10° × 10° field of view. We observed similar anatomical structures in vis-OCT and NIR-OCT. The contrast appeared different from vis-OCT to NIR-OCT, including slightly weaker signal from intra-retinal layers, and increased visibility and contrast of anatomical layers in the outer retina.
Highlights
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a three-dimensional imaging technique that offers micrometer-level resolution and millimeter-level penetration [1, 2]
First we characterized the performance of our visible-light optical coherence tomography (vis-OCT) system
We demonstrated the first human retinal imaging using vis-OCT guided by an integrated scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO)
Summary
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a three-dimensional imaging technique that offers micrometer-level resolution and millimeter-level penetration [1, 2]. The clear ocular medium allows direct optical access to the posterior segment of the eye and enables OCT to image anatomical structures in explicit detail. Functional OCT imaging of retinal blood flow [4,5,6,7] and label-free retinal microangiography [8,9,10] have been developed to supplement the structural information. All the reported human retinal OCT systems have used invisible light sources centered above 800 nm. Within these near-infrared (NIR) spectral ranges, the reduced optical absorption of water, melanin, and blood allows for excellent penetration depth through the entire choroidal layer. The A-line rate can be dramatically increased up to more than 1 MHz [14,15,16,17]
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