In vivo imaging of human vasculature in the chorioretinal complex using phase-variance contrast method with phase-stabilized 1-μm swept-source optical coherence tomography.

We present a noninvasive phase-variance (pv)–based motion contrast method for depth-resolved imaging of the human chorioretinal complex microcirculation with a newly developed phase-stabilized high speed (100-kHz A-scans/s) 1-μm swept- ource optical coherence tomography (SSOCT) system. Compared to our previous spectral-domain (spectrometer based) pv-spectral domain OCT (SDOCT) system, this system has the advantages of higher sensitivity, reduced fringe wash-out for high blood flow speeds and deeper penetration in choroid. High phase stability SSOCT imaging was achieved by using a computationally efficient phase stabilization approach. This process does not require additional calibration hardware and complex numerical procedures. Our phase stabilization method is simple and can be employed in a variety of SSOCT systems. Examples of vasculature in the chorioretinal complex imaged by pv-SSOCT from normal as well as diseased eyes are presented and compared to retinal images of the same subjects acquired with fluorescein angiography and indocyanine green angiography. Observations of morphology of vascular perfusion in chorioretinal complex visualized by our method are listed.