Photoacoustic imaging of the eye: A mini review

Abstract

The eye relies on the synergistic cooperation of many different ocular components, including the cornea, crystalline lens, photoreceptors, and retinal neurons, to precisely sense visual information. Complications with a single ocular component can degrade vision and sometimes cause blindness. Immediate treatment and long-term monitoring are paramount to alleviate symptoms, restore vision, and cure ocular diseases. However, successful treatment requires understanding ocular pathological mechanisms, precisely detecting and monitoring the diseases. The investigation and diagnosis of ocular diseases require advanced medical tools. In this mini review, we discuss non-invasive photoacoustic (PA) imaging as a potential research tool and medical screening device. In the research setting, PA imaging can provide valuable information on the disease progression. In the clinical setting, PA imaging can potentially aid in disease detection and treatment monitoring.

Imaging in myopia: potential biomarkers, current challenges and future developments

“…A future alternative may be photoacoustic imaging, which detects the waves generated by the absorption of pulsed laser light in tissue 97. In contrast to other optical imaging techniques, the contrast is solely based on absorption.…”

Novel Retinal Imaging Technologies

“…The retina of the eye absorbs some of the delivered laser energy, generates heat, undergoes transient thermoelastic expansion, and produces ultrasonic signal. An ultrasound transducer is focused on the retinal surface and detects ultrasonic signals, which are then imaged for both anatomic PAI and functional analysis [16][17][18].…”

“…Moreover, PAI as an ophthalmic imaging modality is based on optical absorption, it can be integrated with other well-established clinical ophthalmic imaging techniques in order to acquire more detailed anatomic and functional evaluation of the eye by multiple optical contrasts [17,23]. Song et al, [24] developed a retinal imaging platform integrating PAOM with scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO), SD-OCT, and FA.…”

In vivo blind‐deconvolution photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy with total variation regularization

“…Recently, we developed photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy (PAOM) that is specifically designed to measure the optical absorption properties of the retina . In PAOM, short laser pulses are delivered onto the posterior segment of the eye, and broad‐band photoacoustic (PA) waves are detected with an unfocused ultrasonic transducer; consequently, three‐dimensional optical absorption‐based retinal imaging is acquired noninvasively by raster scanning .…”