Open AccessSimplified approach to least-square fitting of fluorescence lifetime ophthalmoscopy (FLIO) data by fixating lifetimes
Author(s) -
Rowena Schultz,
Frank Schuster,
Thomas Lehmann,
Johanna Schmidt,
R Augsten,
Martin Hammer
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
biomedical optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.362
H-Index - 86
ISSN - 2156-7085
DOI - 10.1364/boe.10.005996
Subject(s) - ophthalmoscopy , computer science , fixation (population genetics) , fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy , optics , fluorescence , medicine , physics , retina , population , environmental health
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.