Differential intensity contrast swept source optical coherence tomography for human retinal vasculature visualization

We demonstrate an intensity-based motion sensitive method, called differential logarithmic intensity variance (DLOGIV), for 3D microvasculature imaging and foveal avascular zone (FAZ) visualization in the in vivo human retina using swept source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) at 1060 nm. A motion sensitive SS-OCT system was developed operating at 50,000 A-lines/s with 5.9 mu m axial resolution, and used to collect 3D images over 4 mm(2) in a normal subject eye. Multiple B-scans were acquired at each individual slice through the retina and the variance of differences of logarithmic intensities as well as the differential phase variances (DPV) was calculated to identify regions of motion (microvasculature). En face DLOGIV image were capable of capturing the microvasculature through depth with an equal performance compared to the DPV.