Open AccessIntegrating adaptive optics-SLO and OCT for multimodal visualization of the human retinal pigment epithelial mosaic
Author(s) -
Andrew J. Bower,
Tao Liu,
Nancy Aguilera,
Joanne Li,
Jianfei Liu,
Rong Lü,
John Giannini,
Laryssa A. Huryn,
Alfredo Dubra,
Zhuolin Liu,
Daniel X. Hammer,
Johnny Tam
Publication year - 2021
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.413438
Subject(s) - optical coherence tomography , choroideremia , retinal pigment epithelium , scanning laser ophthalmoscopy , ophthalmoscopy , retinal , adaptive optics , contrast (vision) , optics , computer science , ophthalmology , biomedical engineering , medicine , artificial intelligence , physics
In vivo imaging of human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells has been demonstrated through multiple adaptive optics (AO)-based modalities. However, whether consistent and complete information regarding the cellular structure of the RPE mosaic is obtained across these modalities remains uncertain due to limited comparisons performed in the same eye. Here, an imaging platform combining multimodal AO-scanning light ophthalmoscopy (AO-SLO) with AO-optical coherence tomography (AO-OCT) is developed to make a side-by-side comparison of the same RPE cells imaged across four modalities: AO-darkfield, AO-enhanced indocyanine green (AO-ICG), AO-infrared autofluorescence (AO-IRAF), and AO-OCT. Co-registered images were acquired in five subjects, including one patient with choroideremia. Multimodal imaging provided multiple perspectives of the RPE mosaic that were used to explore variations in RPE cell contrast in a subject-, location-, and even cell-dependent manner. Estimated cell-to-cell spacing and density were found to be consistent both across modalities and with normative data. Multimodal images from a patient with choroideremia illustrate the benefit of using multiple modalities to infer the cellular structure of the RPE mosaic in an affected eye, in which disruptions to the RPE mosaic may locally alter the signal strength, visibility of individual RPE cells, or even source of contrast in unpredictable ways.