Table 1.
Comparison between retinal imaging technologies
| Technology | Field of View (FOV) in angular degrees | Resolution in μm | Detectable features of interest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fundus photography |
20°…30°…50° (60°) (up to 110° with Montage Software) |
ca. 10 μm (lateral); Depends on the FOV |
Optic disc, macula, posterior pole, retinal blood vessels, drusen, pigmentation, fluorescein angiography |
| Hyperspectral Imaging (HIS) |
7…20° |
Similar to fundus photography |
Retinal blood vessels, (oxygen saturation), macular pigment, optic disc drusen |
| Confocal Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (cSLO) |
5…25° |
5-10 μm lateral 20–50 μm axial (distance between slices) |
Drusen, microvascular angiopathy, nerve fiber bundles, angioscotomas |
| Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (AOSLO) |
1°…8° |
1.5…3 μm lateral less than cone-to-cone spacing; depends on motion stabilization |
Individual cone photoreceptors (diameter 5–7 μm) |
| Scanning Laser Polarimeter (SLP) |
40° x 20° |
46 μm lateral |
Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness around the optic disc |
| Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) |
5°…15° |
3…10 μm lateral (depends on the the numerical aperture) 2…10 μm axial (depends on the bandwidth of the source and the axial scan speed) |
Microscopic structures in intra-retinal layers, choroidal vessel system, |
| Polarisation Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography (PS OCT) |
20°…40° |
5…20 μm lateral (depends on the the numerical aperture) 10–12 μm axial (depends on the bandwidth of the source and the axial scan speed) |
Tissue organization at the molecular level, retinal pigment epitelium (polarization scrambling), drusen, Bruch’s membrane, retinal ganglion cells |
| Retinal Birefringence Scanning (RBS) | 3°… 20° | Depends on the sampling rate | Fovea, optic nerve |