Computer methods for sampling, reconstruction, display and analysis of retinal whole mounts.
We are quantifying the distribution of photoreceptors and ganglion cells in human retina with the goal of establishing a reliable anatomical database which may be compared to information about visual function. We required a representation of retinal cell distributions which facilitated collection, analysis, and display of morphometric data from the entire retina of a large number of eyes. We report computer methods to (1) reconstruct the original retinal sphere from a three-piece whole mount preparation; (2) sample the retina in a manner which allowed description of approximately radially symmetrical cell distributions and avoided both undersampling (which produces interpolation artifacts) and oversampling (which wastes time); (3) interpolate between data points in order to produce plots of cell density along arbitrary meridians and maps of average cell density from several eyes; (4) specify locations on the retinal surface using a spherical coordinate system with its primary axis through the fovea; and (5) produce color-coded maps of cell distributions in a standard perimetric projection.
Curcio
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CA
Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.
Sloan
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KR
Meyers
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D002452:Cell Count; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D012160:Retina / Q000166:cytology*