A tissue phantom for investigating volume quantification on retinal images obtained with the Stratus OCT system

The performance of the Stratus OCT system in extracting shape and volume of retinal lesions was investigated by scanning a tissue phantom containing specific enclosed geometric gaps of known size. Measurements were made by filling the gaps with an aqueous suspension containing a fixed tissue suspended in phosphate-buffered saline inside the gaps. OCT raw data was exported for subsequent analysis using custom software written in MATLAB software platform. An active contour model was used to outline the boundaries of the fixed tissue on OCT images of the tissue phantom. Images provided by the OCT system were analyzed with the custom software and later compared with the actual geometric parameters of the tissue phantom. An active contour model is effective in detecting the boundaries of the tested object and accurately estimating its volume. We show that a tissue phantom provides an easy and reproducible method of verifying the accuracy and precision of specific features in the images retrieved by the Stratus OCT system.