Retinal imager

In work that could improve diagnoses of many eye diseases, MIT researchers have developed a new type of laser for taking high-resolution, 3-D images of the retina.

The research will be presented at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and the Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference in Baltimore on May 10.

The new imaging system is based on Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), which uses light to obtain high-resolution, cross-sectional images of the eye to visualise subtle changes that occur in retinal disease. OCT was developed in the early 1990s by MIT Professor James Fujimoto, Eric Swanson at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and collaborators.

"Within the last few years optical coherence tomography has become a standard diagnostic for ophthalmology. New techniques are now enabling dramatic increases in image acquisition speeds. These advances promise to enable new and powerful three-dimensional visualization methods which could improve early diagnosis of disease and treatment monitoring," said Fujimoto, who holds appointments in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Research Laboratory of Electronics.