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Contactless optical coherence tomography of the eyes of freestanding individuals with a robotic scanner

Nature Biomedical Engineering volume 5, pages 726–736 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Clinical systems for optical coherence tomography (OCT) are used routinely to diagnose and monitor patients with a range of ocular diseases. They are large tabletop instruments operated by trained staff, and require mechanical stabilization of the head of the patient for positioning and motion reduction. Here we report the development and performance of a robot-mounted OCT scanner for the autonomous contactless imaging, at safe distances, of the eyes of freestanding individuals without the need for operator intervention or head stabilization. The scanner uses robotic positioning to align itself with the eye to be imaged, as well as optical active scanning to locate the pupil and to attenuate physiological eye motion. We show that the scanner enables the acquisition of OCT volumetric datasets, comparable in quality to those of clinical tabletop systems, that resolve key anatomic structures relevant for the management of common eye conditions. Robotic OCT scanners may enable the diagnosis and monitoring of patients with eye conditions in non-specialist clinics.

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Fig. 1: OCT system and scan heads for active tracking.
Fig. 2: Accuracy, precision and transient response for anterior and retinal active-tracking scan heads.
Fig. 3: Anterior imaging results in freestanding individuals.
Fig. 4: Volumetric imaging with and without active tracking in a freestanding individual.
Fig. 5: Autonomous anterior segment results in freestanding individuals.
Fig. 6: Autonomous retinal-imaging results in freestanding individuals with undilated eyes.

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Data availability

The main data supporting the results in this work are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information. The raw data acquired during the study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request, subject to approval from the Duke University Medical Center Institutional Review Board.

Code availability

The custom software developed for this research is described in refs. 33,52. This software is available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the Duke Coulter Translational Partnership and by National Eye Institute grants F30-EY027280, R01-EY029302 and U01-EY028079.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Mark Draelos, Pablo Ortiz, Ruobing Qian, Christian Viehland, Anthony N. Kuo & Joseph A. Izatt

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Ryan McNabb, Anthony N. Kuo & Joseph A. Izatt

  3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Kris Hauser

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Contributions

M.D. and P.O. designed and assembled the scan heads and robotic system. R.M. designed and assembled the reference arm. R.Q., C.V. and R.M. optimized the OCT system. M.D., C.V. and R.M. determined optical safety exposure limits. A.N.K. obtained bioethics approval and consented participants. M.D. and P.O. performed the experiments. M.D. analysed the data and drafted the manuscript. P.O., R.Q., R.M., K.H., A.N.K. and J.A.I. revised the manuscript. K.H., A.N.K. and J.A.I. supervised the project.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark Draelos.

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Competing interests

J.A.I. is an inventor on OCT-related patents filed by Duke University and licensed by Leica Microsystems, Carl Zeiss Meditec and St Jude Medical. J.A.I. has additional financial interests (including royalty and milestone payments) in these companies. R.M. and A.N.K. are inventors on OCT-related patents filed by Duke University and licensed by Leica Microsystems. M.D., P.O., R.M., A.N.K. and J.A.I. are inventors on provisional patent application US62/798,052 filed by Duke University that concerns the robotic OCT system presented in this manuscript. R.Q., C.V. and K.H. declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary Video 1

Robotic arm following the participant to keep the eye centred within the working range for optical active tracking.

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Draelos, M., Ortiz, P., Qian, R. et al. Contactless optical coherence tomography of the eyes of freestanding individuals with a robotic scanner. Nat Biomed Eng 5, 726–736 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-021-00753-6

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