Abstract
Purpose:
To observe the three dimensional structure of human lamina cribrosa (LC) in vivo.
Methods:
We have successfully developed a novel optical coherent tomography (OCT) with 200nm band-width spectrometer and femtoseconds mode-rocked Ti- Sapphire laser as a light source. Twenty healthy volunteers and 20 patients with glaucoma were recruited and examined using this OCT. Raster scan imaging with 10μ step was applied in a 3x3 mm area of the human optic nerve head. Then three dimensional (3D) images was constructed using these image sequences.
Results:
Typical, representative tomograms of 10 eyes of healthy volunteers and 10 eyes of glaucoma patients demonstrated the potential of this OCT to detect morphologic change in LC. Lamina pore in the deep layer of LC could be observed in all eyes and seven of 10 eyes in healthy volunteers were confirmed the lamina pore on the surface of LC. The size and configuration of lamina pore were different between the each layer. In the glaucomatous eyes, some of lamina pores on the surface of LC were deformed to linear or oval, but we could observe round pores in deep layer of the LC.
Conclusions:
This high sensitive, high resolution prototype OCT and in vivo 3D image could observe lamina pore more deeply and clearly. These findings might lead to better understanding of LC structure and glaucoma pathogenesis.
Keywords: 550 imaging/image analysis: clinical •
578 laser •
627 optic disc