In this Phase I Small Business Innovative Research application, Bioptigen Inc. proposes to prototype a portable, handheld cornea and anterior segment optical coherence tomography (CAS-OCT) scanner for use in clinical and applied research applications. OCT is a relatively new technology for ophthalmic imaging, which uses low-coherence interferometry to obtain cross-sectional images in living tissues with micron-scale resolution noninvasively. OCT systems based on the original time-domain interferometry technology have been successfully demonstrated for human retinal and anterior segment imaging at 830nm and 1300nm wavelengths, respectively, however the slower image acquisition rate and lower signal-to-noise ratio of the older technology places severe constraints on the range of subjects which can be successfully imaged. In order to immobilize patients for long acquisition times, retinal and anterior segment OCT imagers commercialized to date have been built into standard tabletop slit-lamp biomicroscope designs. The resulting systems are bulky and limit the range of potential subjects to cooperative humans who can sit upright and fixate well for several seconds. In the last few years, Fourier domain OCT (FDOCT) technology has emerged as a superior alternative to time-domain OCT, exhibiting improved image acquisition speed and robust system design. The increased image acquisition speed opens the possibility for the first time for ophthalmic OCT imaging with handheld probes, and the robust design potential of FDOCT enables the implementation of truly portable systems. Bioptigen, Inc., a startup company affiliated with Duke University, has marketed state-of-the- art retinal FDOCT systems operating at 830nm wavelength using both conventional and handheld delivery optics, and also markets a tabletop microscope-based 1300nm wavelength OCT system for small animal imaging and other pre-clinical research applications. However, due to a limitation intrinsic to FDOCT, both of these systems are limited in imaging depth to less than 4 millimeters, which is insufficient for full-depth anterior segment imaging. In this SBIR Phase I proposal, Bioptigen proposes to adapt their 1300nm OCT and handheld probe technology for high speed, handheld, full-depth anterior segment imaging which will make the benefits of ophthalmic OCT imaging available to a much wider class of subjects, including bedridden and infant human patients, as well as animals of all sizes (from mouse to horse) used in biomedical and veterinary research. In this Phase I Small Business Innovative Research application, Bioptigen Inc. proposes to prototype a portable, handheld cornea and anterior segment optical coherence tomography (CAS-OCT) scanner for use in clinical and applied research applications. This imaging system will be able to image the full depth of the anterior segment (> 6mm) by developing a novel approach to complex conjugate artifact removal. ? ? ?
