Volumetric fluorescein angiography (vFA) by oblique scanning laser ophthalmoscopy in mouse retina at 200 B-scans per second

Biomed Opt Express. 2019 Aug 30;10(9):4907-4918. doi: 10.1364/BOE.10.004907. eCollection 2019 Sep 1.

Abstract

Oblique scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (oSLO) is a recently developed technique to provide three-dimensional volumetric fluorescence imaging in retinas over a large field of view, without the need for depth sectioning. In this study, we present volumetric fluorescein angiography (vFA) at 200 B-scans per second in mouse retina in vivo by oSLO. By using a low-cost industrial CMOS camera, imaging speed was improved to 2 volumes per second, ∼10 times more than our previous results. Enabled by the volumetric imaging, we visualized hemodynamics at single capillary level in a depth-dependent manner, and provided methods to quantify capillary hematocrit, absolute capillary blood flow speed, and detection of capillary flow stagnancy and stalling at different vascular layers. The quantitative metrics for capillary hemodynamics enhanced by volumetric imaging can offer valuable insight into vision science and retinal pathologies.