Project description:We present a new instrument that is capable of imaging human photoreceptors in three dimensions. To achieve high lateral resolution, the system incorporates an adaptive optics system. The high axial resolution is achieved through the implementation of optical coherence tomography (OCT). The instrument records simultaneously both, scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) and OCT en-face images, with a pixel to pixel correspondence. The information provided by the SLO is used to correct for transverse eye motion in post-processing. In order to correct for axial eye motion, the instrument is equipped with a high speed axial eye tracker. In vivo images of foveal cones as well as images recorded at an eccentricity from the fovea showing cones and rods are presented.
Project description:PurposeTo determine the effects of age on perifoveal cone density in healthy subjects using adaptive optics.MethodsHealthy subjects of various ages were imaged using an adaptive optics retinal camera (RTX-1® Imagine Eyes, Orsay, France). All patients underwent a comprehensive ophthalmologic examination and retinal imaging using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (Spectralis®, Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany). Cone density together with cone spacing and cone mosaic packing were measured in the nasal and temporal area 450?µm from the fovea. A multivariate analysis was performed to determine which of the following parameters were related to a decrease in cone density: age, axial length, central macular thickness, and retrofoveal choroidal thickness.ResultsOne hundred and sixty-seven eyes of 101 subjects aged 6-78 years were studied. Perifoveal cone density significantly decreased with age (R2 = 0.17, p<0.01). Inversely, cone spacing increased with age (R2=0.18, p<0.01). There was no change in the cone packing mosaic (p>0.05). The mean coefficient of variation between fellow eyes was 3.9%. Age and axial length were related to a cone density decrease, while choroidal and retinal thicknesses did not affect cone metrics in healthy subjects.ConclusionsA moderate perifoveal cone loss occurs with age. The precise consequences of these findings on visual function should be investigated. In addition to a better understanding of normal retinal anatomy, these results could act as a comparative database for further studies on normal and diseased retinas.
Project description:This review starts with a brief history and description of adaptive optics (AO) technology, followed by a showcase of the latest capabilities of AO systems for imaging the human retina and an extensive review of the literature on where AO is being used clinically. The review concludes with a discussion on future directions and guidance on usage and interpretation of images from AO systems for the eye.
Project description:Adaptive optics (AO) has become an indispensable tool at ground-based solar telescopes. AO enables the ground-based observer to overcome the adverse effects of atmospheric seeing and obtain diffraction limited observations. Over the last decade adaptive optics systems have been deployed at major ground-based solar telescopes and revitalized ground-based solar astronomy. The relatively small aperture of solar telescopes and the bright source make solar AO possible for visible wavelengths where the majority of solar observations are still performed. Solar AO systems enable diffraction limited observations of the Sun for a significant fraction of the available observing time at ground-based solar telescopes, which often have a larger aperture than equivalent space based observatories, such as HINODE. New ground breaking scientific results have been achieved with solar adaptive optics and this trend continues. New large aperture telescopes are currently being deployed or are under construction. With the aid of solar AO these telescopes will obtain observations of the highly structured and dynamic solar atmosphere with unprecedented resolution. This paper reviews solar adaptive optics techniques and summarizes the recent progress in the field of solar adaptive optics. An outlook to future solar AO developments, including a discussion of Multi-Conjugate AO (MCAO) and Ground-Layer AO (GLAO) will be given.Electronic supplementary materialSupplementary material is available for this article at 10.12942/lrsp-2011-2.
Project description:Recent years have seen the emergence of advances in imaging technology that enable in vivo evaluation of the living retina. Two of the more promising techniques, spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and adaptive optics (AO) fundus imaging provide complementary views of the retinal tissue. SD-OCT devices have high axial resolution, allowing assessment of retinal lamination, while the high lateral resolution of AO allows visualization of individual cells. The potential exists to use one modality to interpret results from the other. As a proof of concept, we examined the retina of a 32 year-old male, previously diagnosed with a red-green color vision defect. Previous AO imaging revealed numerous gaps throughout his cone mosaic, indicating that the structure of a subset of cones had been compromised. Whether the affected cells had completely degenerated or were simply morphologically deviant was not clear. Here an AO fundus camera was used to re-examine the retina (~6 years after initial exam) and SD-OCT to examine retinal lamination. The static nature of the cone mosaic disruption combined with the normal lamination on SD-OCT suggests that the affected cones are likely still present.
Project description:Cone photoreceptors in the living human eye have recently been imaged with micron-scale resolution in all three spatial dimensions using adaptive optics optical coherence tomography. While these advances have allowed non-invasive study of the three-dimensional structure of living human cones, studies of their function and physiology are still hampered by the difficulties to monitor the same cells over time. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of cone monitoring using ultrahigh-resolution adaptive optics optical coherence tomography. Critical to this is incorporation of a high speed CMOS camera (125 KHz) and a novel feature-based, image registration/dewarping algorithm for reducing the deleterious effects of eye motion on volume images. Volume movies were acquired on three healthy subjects at retinal eccentricities from 0.5° to 6°. Image registration/dewarping reduced motion artifacts in the movies from 15 μm to 1.3 μm root mean square, the latter sufficient for identifying and tracking cones. Cone row-to-row spacing and outer segment lengths were consistent with that reported in the literature. Cone length analysis demonstrates that UHR-AO-OCT is sufficiently sensitive to measure real length differences between cones in the same 0.5° retinal patch, and requires no more than five measurements of OS length to achieve 95% confidence. We know of no other imaging modality that can monitor foveal or parafoveal cones over time with comparable resolution in all three dimensions.
Project description:Traditional wavefront-sensor-based adaptive optics (AO) techniques face numerous challenges that cause poor performance in scattering samples. Sensorless closed-loop AO techniques overcome these challenges by optimizing an image metric at different states of a deformable mirror (DM). This requires acquisition of a series of images continuously for optimization - an arduous task in dynamic in vivo samples. We present a technique where the different states of the DM are instead simulated using computational adaptive optics (CAO). The optimal wavefront is estimated by performing CAO on an initial volume to minimize an image metric, and then the pattern is translated to the DM. In this paper, we have demonstrated this technique on a spectral-domain optical coherence microscope for three applications: real-time depth-wise aberration correction, single-shot volumetric aberration correction, and extension of depth-of-focus. Our technique overcomes the disadvantages of sensor-based AO, reduces the number of image acquisitions compared to traditional sensorless AO, and retains the advantages of both computational and hardware-based AO.
Project description:Cell-level quantitative features of retinal ganglion cells (GCs) are potentially important biomarkers for improved diagnosis and treatment monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases such as glaucoma, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. Yet, due to limited resolution, individual GCs cannot be visualized by commonly used ophthalmic imaging systems, including optical coherence tomography (OCT), and assessment is limited to gross layer thickness analysis. Adaptive optics OCT (AO-OCT) enables in vivo imaging of individual retinal GCs. We present an automated segmentation of GC layer (GCL) somas from AO-OCT volumes based on weakly supervised deep learning (named WeakGCSeg), which effectively utilizes weak annotations in the training process. Experimental results show that WeakGCSeg is on par with or superior to human experts and is superior to other state-of-the-art networks. The automated quantitative features of individual GCLs show an increase in structure-function correlation in glaucoma subjects compared to using thickness measures from OCT images. Our results suggest that by automatic quantification of GC morphology, WeakGCSeg can potentially alleviate a major bottleneck in using AO-OCT for vision research.
Project description:Vision is the primary sensory modality of birds, and its importance is evident in the sophistication of their visual systems. Coloured oil droplets in the cone photoreceptors represent an adaptation in the avian retina, acting as long-pass colour filters. However, we currently lack understanding of how the optical properties and morphology of component structures (e.g. oil droplet, mitochondrial ellipsoid and outer segment) of the cone photoreceptor influence the transmission of light into the outer segment and the ultimate effect they have on receptor sensitivity. In this study, we use data from microspectrophotometry, digital holographic microscopy and electron microscopy to inform electromagnetic models of avian cone photoreceptors to quantitatively investigate the integrated optical function of the cell. We find that pigmented oil droplets primarily function as spectral filters, not light collection devices, although the mitochondrial ellipsoid improves optical coupling between the inner segment and oil droplet. In contrast, unpigmented droplets found in violet-sensitive cones double sensitivity at its peak relative to other cone types. Oil droplets and ellipsoids both narrow the angular sensitivity of single cone photoreceptors, but not as strongly as those in human cones.