title: Retinal nerve fiber bundle tracing and analysis in human eye by polarization sensitive OCT.
abstract: We present a new semi-automatic processing method for retinal nerve fiber bundle tracing based on polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) data sets. The method for tracing is based on a nerve fiber orientation map that covers the fovea and optic nerve head (ONH) regions. In order to generate the orientation map, two types of information are used: optic axis orientation based on polarization data, and complementary information obtained from nerve fiber layer (NFL) local thickness variation to reveal fiber bundle structures around the fovea. The corresponding two orientation maps are fused into a combined fiber orientation map. En face maps of NFL retardation, thickness, and unit-depth-retardation (UDR, equivalent to birefringence) are transformed into "along-trace" maps by using the obtained traces of the nerve fiber bundles. The method is demonstrated in the eyes of healthy volunteers, and as an example of further analyses utilizing this method, maps illustrating the gradients of NFL retardation, thickness, and UDR are demonstrated.
authors: Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria ; Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Mitsuro
authors: M
authors: Sugita
authors: Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria ; Medical Imaging Cluster, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Pircher
authors: Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors: Stefan
authors: S
authors: Zotter
authors: Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria ; Medical Imaging Cluster, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors: Bernhard
authors: B
authors: Baumann
authors: Department of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors: Philipp
authors: P
authors: Roberts
authors: Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Tomoyuki
authors: T
authors: Makihira
authors: Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Nobuhiro
authors: N
authors: Tomatsu
authors: Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Makoto
authors: M
authors: Sato
authors: Department of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors: Clemens
authors: C
authors: Vass
authors: Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria ; Medical Imaging Cluster, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors: Christoph K
authors: CK
authors: Hitzenberger
keywords: (170.0110) Imaging systems; (170.0170) Medical optics and biotechnology; (170.2655) Functional monitoring and imaging; (170.4470) Ophthalmology; (170.4500) Optical coherence tomography