High-definition, wide field of view corneal imaging

角膜是我们视觉系统的主要聚焦结构。组织中的感染和疾病可能 损害视力并导致失明，即使在神经感觉功能完整的眼睛中也是如此。角膜疾病是一种 世界上导致视力缺陷和失明的主要原因。组织评价是组织评价的重要一步 评估供体角膜的健康状况及其对不同类型放置的适宜性，但这 过程具有高度的主观性。需要高清晰度的角膜成像来辅助选择 最适合移植的组织。这方面的进展将极大地满足公众的需求，就像角膜一样 全球最常见的移植组织，每年有近18.5万例移植。因此，一个更多 眼库组织的客观评价需要灵敏的、定量的方法。 我们研制了一种基于Gabor域光学相干的三维高清成像仪 显微镜(GDOCM)。我们的SBIR第一阶段研究成功地实现了所有目标，并证明了 应用GDOCM定量评估大视野角膜组织的可行性。我们的第一阶段结果 证明了GDOCM与现有的角膜成像技术相比具有以下关键优势： 包括镜面显微镜和共焦显微镜：1)提高了组织鉴定的准确性，将 减少抽样误差的视野-这将提供对整个组织的更真实的评估 特性；2)同时测量角膜厚度、量化内皮细胞密度的能力，以及 识别由于角膜疾病引起的形态变化-这将导致在一个单一的 仪器；3)利用机器学习创新，最大限度地减少用户引起的变异性-这将导致 在更客观的评估中；4)增强的半透明内皮细胞的3D细胞水平成像-这 将使我们能够更详细地了解细胞的活力。 拟议第二阶段研究的结果将证明，GDOCM可以提供高清晰度、3D 角膜结构的可视化及其在眼部供体组织鉴定中的即时商业应用 银行，并为角膜疾病患者的活体临床成像提供了一条途径。

The cornea is the primary focusing structure of our visual system. Infections and diseases in the tissue can impair vision and lead to blindness, even in eyes with intact neurosensory function. Corneal disease is one of the leading causes of visual deficiency and blindness in the world. Tissue evaluation is an important step for assessing the health of the donor cornea and its appropriateness for different types of placement, yet this process suffers from high subjectivity. High-definition corneal imaging is needed to assist in selection of the most appropriate tissue for transplant. Progress on this front would greatly serve public need, as the cornea is the most commonly transplanted tissue worldwide, with nearly 185,000 transplants annually. Thus, a more sensitive and quantitative method for objective evaluation of tissue at eye banks is needed. We have developed a 3D high-definition imaging instrument based on Gabor-Domain Optical Coherence Microscopy (GDOCM). Our SBIR Phase I research successfully accomplished all Aims and demonstrated the feasibility of quantitative assessment of corneal tissue over a large field of view with GDOCM. Our Phase I results demonstrated that GDOCM has the following key advantages over existing corneal imaging techniques, which include specular and confocal microscopy: 1) improved accuracy of tissue qualification with 4-10x increase in field of view that reduces sampling error – this will provides a truer assessment of the overall tissue characteristics; 2) ability to simultaneously measure corneal thickness, quantify endothelial cell density, and identify morphological variations due to corneal disease – this will lead to complete corneal evaluation in a single instrument; 3) leveraging machine learning innovations to minimize variability induced by users – this will result in a more objective evaluation; 4) enhanced 3D cellular-level imaging of thin translucent endothelial cells – this will enable a detailed understanding of cell viability. The results of the proposed Phase studies II will demonstrate that GDOCM can provide high-definition, 3D visualization of corneal structures with immediate commercial application for qualification of donor tissue in eye banks, and with a path to in vivo clinical imaging of patients with corneal disease.