Preliminary results of non-contact THz imaging of cornea

Shijun Sung; James Garritano; Neha Bajwa; Sophie Deng; Jean-Pierre Hubschman; Warren S Grundfest; Zachary D Taylor

doi:10.1117/12.2086866

Preliminary results of non-contact THz imaging of cornea

Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2015 Feb 7:9362:93620C. doi: 10.1117/12.2086866.

Authors

Shijun Sung¹, James Garritano², Neha Bajwa², Sophie Deng³, Jean-Pierre Hubschman³, Warren S Grundfest⁴, Zachary D Taylor⁵

Affiliations

¹ Dept. of Electrical Engineering, UCLA, 420 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095.
² Dept. of Bioengineering, UCLA, 420 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095.
³ Dept. of Ophthalmology, UCLA, 200 UCLA Medical Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095.
⁴ Dept. of Electrical Engineering, UCLA, 420 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095 ; Dept. of Bioengineering, UCLA, 420 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095 ; Dept. of Surgery, UCLA, 200 UCLA Medical Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095.
⁵ Dept. of Bioengineering, UCLA, 420 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095 ; Dept. of Surgery, UCLA, 200 UCLA Medical Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095.

Abstract

This paper presents a novel THz optical design that allows the acquisition of THz reflectivity maps of in vivo cornea without the need for a field flattening window and preliminary imaging results of in vivo rabbit cornea. The system's intended use is to sense small changes in corneal tissue water content (CTWC) that can be precursors for a host of diseases and pathologies. Unique beam optics allows the scanning of a curved surface at normal incidence while keeping the source detector and target stationary. Basic system design principles are discussed and image sets of spherical calibration targets and corneal phantom models are presented. The presented design will enable, for the first time, non-contact THz imaging of animal and human cornea.

Keywords: THz medical imaging; optical design; quasioptics.

Abstract

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