Open AccessRetinal nerve fiber bundle tracing and analysis in human eye by polarization sensitive OCT
Author(s) -
Mitsuro Sugita,
Michael Pircher,
Stefan Zotter,
Bernhard Baumann,
Philipp Roberts,
Tomoyuki Makihira,
Nobuhiro Tomatsu,
Makoto Sato,
Clemens Vass,
Christoph K. Hitzenberger
Publication year - 2015
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.6.001030
Subject(s) - optical coherence tomography , nerve fiber layer , fiber bundle , retinal , optics , bundle , optic nerve , materials science , tracing , nerve fiber , birefringence , orientation (vector space) , anatomy , computer science , physics , ophthalmology , medicine , mathematics , composite material , operating system , geometry
We present a new semi-automatic processing method for retinal nerve fiber bundle tracing based on polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) data sets. The method for tracing is based on a nerve fiber orientation map that covers the fovea and optic nerve head (ONH) regions. In order to generate the orientation map, two types of information are used: optic axis orientation based on polarization data, and complementary information obtained from nerve fiber layer (NFL) local thickness variation to reveal fiber bundle structures around the fovea. The corresponding two orientation maps are fused into a combined fiber orientation map. En face maps of NFL retardation, thickness, and unit-depth-retardation (UDR, equivalent to birefringence) are transformed into "along-trace" maps by using the obtained traces of the nerve fiber bundles. The method is demonstrated in the eyes of healthy volunteers, and as an example of further analyses utilizing this method, maps illustrating the gradients of NFL retardation, thickness, and UDR are demonstrated.