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Updated: Jun 29, 2026

Doppler Optical Coherence Tomography of Retinal Circulation
Published on: September 18, 2012
High-sensitivity determination of birefringence in turbid media with enhanced polarization-sensitive optical
Nate J Kemp1, Jesung Park, Haitham N Zaatari
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1084, USA. natekemp@mail.utexas.edu
Abstract:
Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography provides high-resolution cross-sectional characterization of birefringence in turbid media. Weakly birefringent biological tissues such as the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) require advanced speckle noise reduction for high-sensitivity measurement of form birefringence. We present a novel method for high-sensitivity birefringence quantification by using enhanced polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (EPS-OCT) and introduce the polarimetric signal-to-noise ratio, a mathematical tool for analyzing speckle noise in polarimetry. Multiple incident polarization states and non-linear fitting of normalized Stokes vectors allow determination of retardation with +/-1 degrees uncertainty with invariance to unknown unitary polarization transformations. Results from a weakly birefringent turbid film and in vivo primate RNFL are presented. In addition, we discuss the potential of EPS-OCT for noninvasive quantification of intracellular filamentous nanostructures, such as neurotubules in the RNFL that are lost during the progression of glaucoma.
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