Optical tomography of the in vivo human lens: three-dimensional visualization of cataracts

Abstract

An in vivo human lens containing a cataract has been visualized by a series of orthogonal slices made through a three-dimensional volume reconstruction. Data acquisition was made with a transformed series of 60 rotated Scheimpflug digital images. Each digital image represents the light scatter from the lens in a plane that contains the optic axis. At each angular position of the camera, a digital image of the in vivo ocular lens was acquired. The set of 60 Scheimpflug digital images was mathematically transformed into a new data set in which the images were oriented perpendicular to the optic axis of the eye. The transformed set of optical sections was aligned to correct for small eye movements during the data collection process. In order to visualize the volume of the in vivo human lens, slices were projected through the lens volumetric data set. The use of orthogonal slices to visualize lenticular light scatter represents a new technique to visualize human cataracts in vivo in three dimensions.