Active retinal tracker for clinical optical coherence tomography systems

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has rapidly become a standard clinical tool for ophthalmologist in the diagnosis of retinal diseases.¹ OCT uses heterodyne detection of backscattered low-coherence light scanned transversely and axially to produce high-resolution 2-D sections of tissues. In the eye, OCT has been used to image macular edema,² macular holes, retinal detachments,³ and retinal vein occlusions⁴ among other conditions. One of the most promising applications of OCT in ophthalmic imaging is for the early diagnosis of glaucoma.⁵ This application requires accurate and reproducible measurement of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) for multiple patient visits over an extended period of time. Clinical OCT instruments have been shown⁶ to produce highly accurate maps of RNFL.