Towards in vivo high-definition 3D corneal imaging

The corneathe outermost window of our visual systemis vulnerable to various types of infections and diseasesCorneal disease is one of the leading causes of visual deficiency and blindness !There are nearlymillion bilaterally corneal blind persons worldwideand an estimatedmillion people affected by unilateral corneal blindness globallyIn a conservative estimatecorneal diseases affect nearlypeople in the United Stateswith Fuchsdystrophy affectingof people aged overandinAmericans affected by keratoconusSince many corneal diseases can only be distinguished at the micrometer scalethere is a strong need for imaging tools that can noninvasively visualize the cellular changes in the cornea in vivoto assist clinical diagnosisevaluate progression of diseasesand treatmentWe have developed aD high definition imaging instrument based on Gabor Domain Optical Coherence MicroscopyGD OCMfor noninvasive visualization and quantitative characterization of the cornea over a large field of viewOur data suggest that GD OCM has the following key advantages over existing in vivo corneal imaging techniqueswhich include optical coherence tomographyOCTand confocal microscopyx increase in field of view compared to existing confocal microscopes used in clinics worldwidethis will lead to more accurate qualification of the corneal tissuesince a larger area can be assessednon contact operationunlike confocal microscopesgreatly reducing patient discomfort and eliminating risks of corneal damagehigh definition cross sectional imaging at an order of magnitude better lateral resolution than OCTD imaging capability at the cellular level over the entire thickness of the corneathis will enable advances in understanding the progression of the diseasesWe hypothesize that GD OCM can accurately conduct all the assessments currently performed with OCT and confocal microscopyand additionally provideD visualization of the cornea structures over the full depth of the cornea for additional tissue characterization and diagnostic aidIn addition to aiding early diagnosis of corneal diseasethe proposed GD OCM instrument will aid in preand post operative screening for refractive surgerytransplantdrug therapiesmonitoring wound healingcorneal nerve assessmentand prevention of stromal rejectionWe envision that in the future the GD OCM instrument enabled by this Phase I SBIR proposal will provide the early foundation for an image guidance method to assist clinicians in the assessment and treatment of corneal diseases and other diseases affecting the anterior segment of the eyeincluding diabetes and glaucoma Noninvasive imaging is the holy grail for clinical diagnosisCurrent corneal imaging techniques are limited by limited field of view and or insufficient resolutionWe propose to commercialize a Gabor domain optical coherence microscope to enable non invasivehigh definitionwide field of view imaging inD for clinical applications