Enhanced visualization of peripheral retinal vasculature with wavefront sensorless adaptive optics optical coherence tomography angiography in diabetic patients

Opt Lett. 2017 Jan 1;42(1):17-20. doi: 10.1364/OL.42.000017.

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a promising technique for non-invasive visualization of vessel networks in the human eye. We debut a system capable of acquiring wide field-of-view (>70°) OCT angiograms without mosaicking. Additionally, we report on enhancing the visualization of peripheral microvasculature using wavefront sensorless adaptive optics (WSAO). We employed a fast WSAO algorithm that enabled wavefront correction in <2 s by iterating the mirror shape at the speed of OCT B-scans rather than volumes. Also, we contrasted ∼7° field-of-view OCTA angiograms acquired in the periphery with and without WSAO correction. On average, WSAO improved the sharpness of microvasculature by 65% in healthy eyes and 38% in diseased eyes. Preliminary observations demonstrated that the location of 7° images could be identified directly from the wide field-of-view angiogram. A pilot study on a normal subject and patients with diabetic retinopathy showed the impact of utilizing WSAO for OCTA when visualizing peripheral vasculature pathologies.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Diabetic Retinopathy / diagnostic imaging*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Optics and Photonics
  • Pilot Projects
  • Retina
  • Retinal Vessels*
  • Tomography, Optical Coherence / methods*