Multifunctional 1050 nm spectral domain OCT system at 147 kHz for posterior eye imaging

Abstract

The recent development of optical coherence tomography in ophthalmology has shown great interests in using the system in 1 µm in contrast to 800 nm wavelength range due to the less reflection and absorption of retinal pigment epithelium and pigmented choroidal melanocytes in 1 µm wavelength. The clinical value of using 1 µm system has been demonstrated in choroid imaging, retinal and choroidal microcirculation, etc. By examining different aspects of the posterior eye, the specificity and sensitivity of diagnosis can be increased. On the other hand, higher speed can greatly reduce the measuring time and motion artifacts, which brings comfort to the patients and improves the image quality. In this work, we report a newly developed multifunctional 1050 nm spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) system working at 147 kHz A-scan rate for posterior eye imaging. The uniqueness of this system is: 1) its capability of providing not only simultaneous structural imaging of the complete posterior eye, but also the visualization of the retinal blood vessel network with larger field of view and good image quality compared with former SD-OCT systems; 2) it’s fast 147 kHz A-scan rate which has not been reported before. It is demonstrated through in vivo experiments that this system delivers not only superior performance of posterior eye structural imaging but also detailed visualization of microcirculation network in retina. The choroid of the eye with either myopic or normal conditions can clearly be visualized through the entire scanning volume. These results indicate great potential in applying this new system for clinical studies.