Birefringence measurement of the retinal nerve fiber layer by swept source polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography

• Published in: Optics express Vol. 19; no. 11; pp. 10252 - 10268
• Main Authors: Elmaanaoui, Badr, Wang, Bingqing, Dwelle, Jordan C., McElroy, Austin B., Liu, Shuang S., Rylander, Henry G., Milner, Thomas E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Optical Society of America 23.05.2011
• Subjects: Algorithms; Birefringence; Cornea - pathology; Equipment Design; Fourier Analysis; Models, Theoretical; Nerve Fibers; Optic Disk; Optic Nerve - pathology; Optics and Photonics - methods; Retina; Retinal Vessels - pathology; Scanning Laser Polarimetry; Sensitivity and Specificity; Tomography, Optical Coherence - instrumentation; Tomography, Optical Coherence - methods
• ISSN: 1094-4087; 1094-4087
• DOI: 10.1364/OE.19.010252

A Swept Source Polarization-Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography (SS-PS-OCT) instrument has been designed, constructed, and verified to provide high sensitivity depth-resolved birefringence and phase retardation measurements of the retinal nerve fiber layer. The swept-source laser had a center wavelength of 1059 nm, a full-width-half-max spectral bandwidth of 58 nm and an A-line scan rate of 34 KHz. Power incident on the cornea was 440 µW and measured axial resolution was 17 µm in air. A multiple polarization state nonlinear fitting algorithm was used to measure retinal birefringence with low uncertainty. Maps of RNFL phase retardation in a subject measured with SS-PS-OCT compare well with those generated using a commercial scanning laser polarimetry instrument. Peak-to-valley variation of RNFL birefringence given here is less than values previously reported at 840nm.