Simplified approach to least-square fitting of fluorescence lifetime ophthalmoscopy (FLIO) data by fixating lifetimes

Abstract

Fluorescence lifetime imaging ophthalmoscopy (FLIO) is a new imaging modality in ophthalmology. For clinical investigations, the amplitude-weighted mean of two or three lifetime components is usually analyzed. In this study, we investigated the effects of fixation of lifetime components. This resulted in slightly higher fit errors but mean lifetimes were highly correlated to those from fits with variable individual lifetimes. Furthermore, this approach resulted in a similarly good discrimination of diabetic retinopathy patients from controls, a reduction of the computational workload, a de-noising of the mean lifetime images and allows higher local resolution. Thus, fixation of lifetimes in the fit of FLIO data could be superior for clinical routine analysis of FLIO data.

Fluorescence lifetime distribution in phakic and pseudophakic healthy eyes

“…In this large cohort we found an age dependency of the mean FLT in both spectral channels of the retina, in keeping with an earlier study of our group in 31 subjects [6]. This age dependency was reproduced in other studies from independent groups [22,23]. In the present study with subjects between 21 and 91 years, an increase of about 33 ps in the SSC and 28 ps in the LSC per decade was found.…”