Transscleral Optical Phase Imaging of the Human Retina
T Laforest1,2, M Künzi1,2, L Kowalczuk3,4
1Laboratory of Applied Photonic Devices (LAPD), School of Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.
Nature Photonics
|July 2, 2020
Summary
Transscleral optical phase imaging (TOPI) with adaptive optics (AO) offers a novel way to visualize retinal cells in vivo. This technique improves cell contrast, aiding early disease detection without pupil dilation.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Biomedical Imaging
- Cellular Biology
Background:
- In vivo cellular-level retinal imaging is vital for early detection and treatment of retinal diseases.
- Current adaptive optics (AO) systems face limitations in imaging retinal cells due to low signal-to-noise ratios from transpupillary illumination.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce and evaluate a novel transscleral optical phase imaging (TOPI) method combined with AO.
- To enhance the contrast of retinal cells for improved in vivo imaging.
Main Methods:
- The study utilized a transscleral optical phase imaging (TOPI) technique employing high-angle oblique illumination.
- Adaptive optics (AO) was integrated with TOPI to boost cellular contrast.
- The method was tested on eleven healthy volunteer eyes without pupil dilation and on ex vivo retinas.
Main Results:
- The TOPI method successfully produced in vivo images of retinal cells, spanning from the retinal pigment epithelium to the nerve fiber layer.
- High-resolution, label-free, ex vivo phase images of flat-mounted retinas were also generated.
- In vivo images with a 4.4°x 4.4° field-of-view were acquired in under 10 seconds.
Conclusions:
- Transscleral optical phase imaging (TOPI) combined with adaptive optics (AO) effectively visualizes retinal cells in vivo.
- This technique offers improved contrast and rapid image acquisition, overcoming limitations of traditional methods.
- The TOPI method presents new possibilities for exploring healthy and diseased retinas at the cellular level.
