Abstract
We achieved photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy (PAOM) imaging of the retina with near-infrared (NIR) light illumination. A PAOM imaging system with dual-wavelength illumination at 1064 nm and 532 nm was built. We compared in vivo imaging results of both albino and pigmented rat eyes at the two wavelengths. The results show that the bulk optical absorption of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is only slightly higher than that of the retinal vessels at 532 nm while it becomes more than an order of magnitude higher than that of the retinal vessels at 1064 nm. These studies suggest that although visible light illumination is suitable for imaging both the retinal vessels and the RPE, NIR light illumination, being more comfortable to the eye, is better suited for RPE melanin related investigations and diagnoses.
Highlights
Photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy (PAOM) [1] is a newly developed photoacoustic (PA) imaging technology that is complementary to the existing ophthalmic imaging technologies by providing optical absorption imaging contrast
The benefits of PAOM arise from its intrinsic absorption contrast which enables PAOM to visualize strongly optically absorbing tissue with a high signal to noise ratio [1,2]; in the meantime, imaging optical absorption properties at multiple wavelengths can extract important hemodynamic information such as oxygenation saturation [3,4,5,6], which can be potentially applied to sensing retinal hemodynamic functions
We showed the capability of PAOM to provide complementary in vivo anatomical information by integrating it with autofluorescence imaging [7], scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and fluorescein angiography [8]
Summary
Photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy (PAOM) [1] is a newly developed photoacoustic (PA) imaging technology that is complementary to the existing ophthalmic imaging technologies by providing optical absorption imaging contrast. The benefits of PAOM arise from its intrinsic absorption contrast which enables PAOM to visualize strongly optically absorbing tissue (e.g. blood vessels in the retina and choroid, and the retinal pigmented epithelium) with a high signal to noise ratio [1,2]; in the meantime, imaging optical absorption properties at multiple wavelengths can extract important hemodynamic information such as oxygenation saturation [3,4,5,6], which can be potentially applied to sensing retinal hemodynamic functions. We showed the capability of PAOM to provide complementary in vivo anatomical information by integrating it with autofluorescence imaging [7], scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and fluorescein angiography [8]. The existing PAOM uses visible light for imaging the retina, which has two disadvantages compared to infrared (NIR) light.
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