Recent developments in optical coherence tomography for imaging the retina

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was introduced in ophthalmology a decade ago. Within a few years in vivo imaging of the healthy retina and optic nerve head and of retinal diseases was a fact. In particular the ease with which these images can be acquired considerably changed the diagnostic strategy used by ophthalmologists. The OCT technique currently available in clinical practice is referred to as time-domain OCT, because the depth information of the retina is acquired as a sequence of samples, over time. This can be done either in longitudinal cross-sections perpendicular to, or in the coronal plane parallel to the retinal surface. Only recently, major advances have been made as to image resolution with the introduction of ultrahigh resolution OCT and in imaging speed, signal-to-noise ratio and sensitivity with the introduction of spectral-domain OCT. Functional OCT is the next frontier in OCT imaging. For example, polarization-sensitive OCT uses the birefringent characteristics of the retinal nerve fibre layer to better assess its thickness. Blood flow information from retinal vessels as well as the oxygenation state of retinal tissue can be extracted from the OCT signal. Very promising are the developments in contrast-enhanced molecular optical imaging, for example with the use of scattering tuneable nanoparticles targeted at specific tissue or cell structures. This review will provide an overview of these most recent developments in the field of OCT imaging focussing on applications for the retina.