Optical distortion correction in optical coherence tomography for quantitative ocular anterior segment by...

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Biomedical Optics
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Anterior segment Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is vital for eye imaging.
• Accurate quantitative analysis of OCT images is limited by optical distortion.
• Existing methods struggle with precise surface topography measurements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel 3-D optical distortion correction method for anterior segment OCT.
• To improve the accuracy of surface curvature and asphericity measurements from OCT data.
• To enhance the quantitative analysis capabilities of OCT in ophthalmology.

Main Methods:

• Developed a 3-D ray tracing method incorporating denoising, surface segmentation, Delaunay representation, and fan distortion correction.
• Applied the correction method to realistic eye models and experimental OCT data (artificial, porcine, and human eyes).
• Validated results by comparing OCT-derived surface parameters with reference measurements (nominal values, profilometry, Scheimpflug imaging).

Main Results:

• The 3-D optical distortion correction significantly improved the accuracy of radius of curvature and asphericity estimates.
• Discrepancies in radius of curvature estimates were reduced to less than 1% compared to nominal values.
• The method demonstrated superior performance over conventional 2-D correction and analysis techniques.

Conclusions:

• 3-D optical distortion correction is critical for accurate quantitative analysis of anterior segment OCT images.
• This method enables precise topographical mapping of internal ocular surfaces.
• The developed technique advances the diagnostic potential of OCT in ophthalmology.