In vivo dynamic human retinal blood flow imaging using ultra-high-speed spectral domain optical Doppler tomography

Abstract

An ultra-high-speed spectral domain optical Doppler tomography (SD-ODT) system is used to acquire images of blood flow in a human retina in vivo, at 29,000 depth profiles (A-lines) per second and with data acquisition over 99% of the measurement time. The phase stability of the system is examined and image processing algorithms are presented that allow accurate determination of bi-directional Doppler shifts. Movies are presented of human retinal flow acquired at 29 frames per second with 1000 A-lines per frame over a time period of 3.28 seconds, showing accurate determination of vessel boundaries and time-dependent bi-directional flow dynamics in artery-vein pairs. The ultra-high-speed SD-ODT system allows visualization of the pulsatile nature of retinal blood flow, detects blood flow within the choroid and retinal capillaries, and provides information on the cardiac cycle. In summary, accurate video rate imaging of retinal blood flow dynamics is demonstrated at ocular exposure levels below 600 µW.

Doppler OCT imaging of cytoplasm shuttle flow in Physarum polycephalum

“…Another way is the extension of the application field. The capability of imaging with high spatial and time resolution of the scattering media structure and flows embedded into these media allows one to conduct detailed investigations of the structure and the functioning of the blood microcirculation system of humans or animals [3], imaging of embryonal development [4], as well as the study of cell motility dynamics [5,6].…”

Fourier Domain Optical Coherence Tomography for Retinal Imaging with 800-nm Swept Source: Real-time Resampling in k-domain

“…In ophthalmology, OCT was already commercialized and widely used for non-invasive structural and quantitative imaging of the human retina and anterior segment [2][3][4][5]. Recently, Fourier-domain OCT (FD-OCT), which includes a spectral-domain method and a swept-source method, has become a preferred method owing to its superior features of higher acquisition speed and sensitivity [6][7][8][9][10]. Due to the limited number of camera pixels, spectral-domain OCT (FD/SD-OCT) has trade-offs among the axial resolution, imaging depth range, acquisition time, and sensitivity roll-off [11,12].…”

Quantifizierung von Flussgeschwindigkeiten mit dem Verfahren der Fourier Domain Optische KohärenztomografieFlow Velocity Quantification with Fourier Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

“…Dopplerverschiebung, die durch bewegte Strukturen bei der Bildaufnahme entsteht und wird demzufolge als Doppler FD OCT bezeichnet [7][8][9][10]. Für die Quantifizierung höherer Flussgeschwindigkeiten, bei dem die Doppler FD OCT aufgrund unkorrelierter Phasenbeziehungen benachbarter Tiefensignale limitiert ist, wurde eine zweite Methode entwickelt.…”