Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 123 Cheomdan-gwagiro, Gwangju 61005, Republic of Korea.
Hallym University, Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital College of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, 153 Gyo-dong, Chuncheon 24253, Republic of Korea.
J Biomed Opt. 2017 Jan 1;22(1):10501. doi: 10.1117/1.JBO.22.1.010501.
We have employed Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) to achieve corneal nerve imaging, which could be useful in surgical planning and refractive surgery. Because the three-dimensional (3-D) images of the corneal nerves were acquired in vivo, unintentional movement of the subject during the measurement led to imaging artifacts. These artifacts were compensated for with a series of signal processing techniques, namely realigning A-scan images to flatten the boundary and cross-correlating adjacent B-scan images. To overcome the undesirably large signal from scattering at the corneal surface and iris, volume rendering and maximum intensity projections were performed with only the data taken in the stromal region of the cornea, which is located between 200 and 500???m from the corneal surface. The 3-D volume imaging of a 10×10??mm2 area took 9.8 s, which is slightly shorter than the normal tear breakup time. This allowed us to image the branched and threadlike corneal nerve bundles within the human eye. The experimental results show that FD-OCT systems have the potential to be useful in clinical investigations of corneal nerves and by minimizing nerve injury during clinical or surgical procedures.
我们采用傅里叶域光学相干断层扫描（FD-OCT）来实现角膜神经成像，这在手术规划和屈光手术中可能很有用。由于在体内获得了角膜神经的三维（3D）图像，因此在测量过程中，受试者的无意运动导致了成像伪影。这些伪影通过一系列信号处理技术得到了补偿，即重新排列 A 扫描图像以使其边界变平，并对相邻的 B 扫描图像进行互相关。为了克服角膜表面和虹膜散射带来的不希望的大信号，可以仅对位于角膜表面 200 到 500μm 之间的基质区域内采集的数据进行体绘制和最大强度投影。对 10×10mm2 区域的 3D 体积成像耗时 9.8 秒，略短于正常的泪液破裂时间。这使得我们能够在人眼内成像分支和线状的角膜神经束。实验结果表明，FD-OCT 系统具有在角膜神经的临床研究中应用的潜力，并可以在临床或手术过程中尽量减少神经损伤。
