RETINAL SPECTRAL IMAGING AND BLOOD FLOW MEASUREMENT

Abstract

Measurement of both oxygen saturation and blood flow in the retinal vessels has proved to give important information about the eye health and the onset of eye pathologies such as diabetic retinopathy. In this study, we present the implementation, on a commercially available fundus camera, of a retinal imager and a retina blood flow velocimeter. The retinal imager uses division of aperture to acquire nine wavelength-dependent sub-images of the retina. Careful consideration is taken to improve image transfer by measuring the optical properties of the fundus camera and modeling the optical train in Zemax. This part of the setup is calibrated with optical phantoms of known optical properties that are also used to build a lookup table (LUT) linking phantom optical properties to measured reflectance. The retina blood flow velocimeter relies on tracking clusters of erythrocytes and uses a fast acquisition camera attached to a zoom lens, with a green illumination LED-engine. Calibration is provided using a calibrated quartz capillary tube and human blood at a known flow rate. Optical properties of liquid phantoms are retrieved from measured reflectance using the LUT, and blood flow measurements in the retina are presented.