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Scanning laser ophthalmoscopy – basic optical principles
Author(s) -
Irsch K.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2016.0201
Subject(s) - pinhole (optics) , optics , scanning laser ophthalmoscopy , ophthalmoscopy , laser , microscope , confocal , cardinal point , fluorescein angiography , materials science , computer science , adaptive optics , retina , physics , visual acuity
Summary Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy (SLO) produces an ocular fundus image by moving a focused laser beam via scanning mirrors over the retina in a grid pattern and registering the reflected light from each scanned point. In confocal SLO, a pinhole is placed in front of the detector to cut off scattered or defocused light coming from outside the point of interest, which otherwise can blur the image. This results in a focused, high‐contrast image of a single tissue layer located at the focal plane. Tomographic information can be extracted by moving the plane of the pinhole. The use of various wavelengths allows for different applications, such as fluorescein angiography, indocyanine green angiography, and autofluorescence imaging. This lecture will present the basic principles of SLO, as well as discuss notable applications and variants of the technology.