Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), with support from Carl Zeiss Ophthalmic Systems (CZOS), has successfully completed a Phase I research program demonstrating the feasibility of combining Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and patented PSI retinal tracking technology. A Phase II research and development program is proposed to create Tracking OCT (TOCT) instrumentation that will significantly enhance retinal imaging and morphometric diagnostics. The capability to reproducibly map three-dimensional structures in the living eye, approaching cellular resolution, will lead to improved understanding of disease processes and improved sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic procedures. At present, the slow speed of 2-D OCT imaging limits diagnostic potential in the clinic. Normal eye movement often renders transverse OCT scan registration difficult to correct, creating image errors and artifacts. PSI's retinal tracking technology is a highspeed, non-imaging system that uses retinal landmarks to achieve precise transverse image registration, and with tracking errors smaller than the OCT beam diameter. Precisely aligned scans can be compared months, or years apart. Frame averaging techniques can reduce OCT speckle noise without loss of transverse or longitudinal resolution. Adjacent 2-D scans can be concatenated into 3-D data sets. Standard resolution and high resolution TOCT systems will be assembled and tested in clinical studies at New England Eye Center.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Small Business Innovation Research Grants (SBIR) - Phase II (R44)
Project #
2R44EY013036-02A1
Application #
6645282
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-BDCN-5 (10))
Program Officer
Helmsen, Ralph J
Project Start
2000-09-30
Project End
2005-04-30
Budget Start
2003-05-01
Budget End
2004-04-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$320,001
Indirect Cost
Name
Physical Sciences, Inc
Department
Type
DUNS #
073800062
City
Andover
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
01810
Ishikawa, Hiroshi; Gabriele, Michelle L; Wollstein, Gadi et al. (2006) Retinal nerve fiber layer assessment using optical coherence tomography with active optic nerve head tracking. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 47:964-7
Hammer, Daniel X; Ferguson, R Daniel; Magill, John C et al. (2005) Active retinal tracker for clinical optical coherence tomography systems. J Biomed Opt 10:024038
Ferguson, R Daniel; Hammer, Daniel X; Paunescu, Lelia Adelina et al. (2004) Tracking optical coherence tomography. Opt Lett 29:2139-41