Abstract
In today’s clinics, a cell-resolution view of the cornea can be achieved only with a confocal microscope (IVCM) in contact with the eye. Here, we present a common-path full-field/spectral-domain OCT microscope (FF/SD OCT), which enables cell-detail imaging of the entire ocular surface in humans (central and peripheral cornea, limbus, sclera, tear film) without contact and in real-time. Real-time performance is achieved through rapid axial eye tracking and simultaneous defocusing correction. Images contain cells and nerves, which can be quantified over a millimetric field-of-view, beyond the capability of IVCM and conventional OCT. In the limbus, palisades of Vogt, vessels, and blood flow can be resolved with high contrast without contrast agent injection. The fast imaging speed of 275 frames/s (0.6 billion pixels/s) allows direct monitoring of blood flow dynamics, enabling creation of high-resolution velocity maps. Tear flow velocity and evaporation time can be measured without fluorescein administration.
Highlights
In today’s clinics, a cell-resolution view of the cornea can be achieved only with a confocal microscope (IVCM) in contact with the eye
in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) provides a limited field of view (FOV), well below 0.5 mm × 0.5 mm, which results in a long examination time as the clinician searches for the region of interest
The central idea in a common-path FF/SD OCT interferometer is to detect the axial position of the cornea in real-time with SDOCT and use this information to optically match the arms of the full-field optical coherence tomography (FFOCT) interferometer by moving the reference arm, leading to consistent FFOCT imaging of a moving in vivo cornea (Fig. 1 and Supplementary Movies 1, 2)
Summary
In today’s clinics, a cell-resolution view of the cornea can be achieved only with a confocal microscope (IVCM) in contact with the eye. We developed in vivo full-field optical coherence tomography (FFOCT) and demonstrated its capability to capture images of the central human cornea, resolving features such as nerves, cells, and nuclei without touching the eye[10] This technology, originating from the lower speed ex vivo FFOCT11–14, uses a 2D camera to acquire high-resolution en face images (i) directly without beam scanning artifacts, (ii) rapidly (at a camera frame rate), (iii) with flexible FOV. We demonstrate a combined common-path FFOCT/ SDOCT microscope (FF/SD OCT), which tracks the axial position of the eye and matches the optical arm lengths of FFOCT in real time to allow consistent imaging of the entire ocular surface (central, peripheral and limbal cornea, limbus, sclera, tear film). We demonstrate a method to reveal highresolution blood flow velocity and orientation maps, which may lead the way to new localized diagnostic methodologies of scleral inflammation and approaches to monitor therapeutic effects locally
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