Abstract
Photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy (PAOM) is a novel, hybrid, non-ionizing, and non-invasive imaging technology that has been used to assess the retina. PAOM can provide both anatomic and functional retinal characterizations with high resolution, high sensitivity, high contrast, and a high depth of penetration. Thus, ocular diseases can be precisely detected and visualized at earlier stages, resulting in an improved understanding of pathophysiology, improved management, and the improved monitoring of retinal treatment to prevent vision loss. To better visualize ocular components such as retinal vessels, choroidal vessels, choroidal neovascularization, retinal neovascularization, and the retinal pigment epithelium, an advanced multimodal ocular imaging platform has been developed by a combination of PAOM with other optical imaging techniques such as optical coherence tomography (OCT), scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO), and fluorescence microscopy. The multimodal images can be acquired from a single imaging system and co-registered on the same image plane, enabling an improved evaluation of disease. In this review, the potential application of photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy in both research and clinical diagnosis are discussed as a medical screening technique for the visualization of various ocular diseases. The basic principle and requirements of photoacoustic ocular imaging are introduced. Then, various photoacoustic microscopy imaging systems of the retina in animals are presented. Finally, the future development of PAOM and multimodal imaging is discussed.
Highlights
Vision impairment and blindness are a major public health problem that is increasing worldwide.According to the global prevalence of vision impairment and blindness, approximately 36 million people worldwide are blind [1]
This review introduces the recent advances in photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy, as well as their basic principles, current applications, and future directions
PA imaging is performed to determine the concentration of chromophore, orphotoacoustic to quantify the suitable imaging is classified into three groups: photoacoustic tomography (PAT), microscopy excited wavelength for distinguishing between normal and abnormal tissues
Summary
Vision impairment and blindness are a major public health problem that is increasing worldwide. Several imaging modalities have classically been used to assess and evaluate the retinal and choroidal vasculature, including color fundus photography, fluorescein angiography (FA), indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) [4,5,6], optical coherence tomography (OCT), scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO), fundus autofluorescence, fluorescent lifetime imaging ophthalmoscopy (FLIO), and optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) [4,7,8] These imaging modalities depend on the detection of backscattering light from the retinal tissues or emitted light from an exogenous contrast agent, leading to limited penetration depth and visualization of the depth vasculature network. The ocular images can be acquired from each imaging modality, and these images can be co-registered, enabling the identification of very specific regions of interest based on anatomical structures and the photoacoustic signal These remarkable advances in ophthalmic imaging can precisely help visualize and distinguish in detail retinal structures, their depth, and the surrounding anatomy better than conventional ophthalmic imaging systems. This review introduces the recent advances in photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy, as well as their basic principles, current applications, and future directions
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