Increasing the isoplanatic patch in adaptive optics ophthalmoscopy

PROJECT SUMMARY The optics of the eye suffer from imperfections (wavefront aberrations) that blur retinal images. This blur limits our ability to diagnose eye disease before irreversible damage and vision loss take place. Adaptive optics (AO) ophthalmoscopy can correct for this blur, which is unique to each eye and retinal location. Current AO ophthalmoscopes can only capture images of very small retinal areas because they cannot correct for the variation of the wavefront aberrations across the retina. This limitation impedes the use of this technology for detecting early signs of disease, which in turn, enable the early treatment that would mitigate irreversible vision loss. Here we propose to first measure how wavefront aberrations change across the retina in a human subject population to improve the design and operation of all future AO ophthalmoscopes. We also propose two novel methods for measuring and correcting wavefront aberrations that vary across the retina to increase the field of view of these instruments. First, we propose to measure aberrations sequentially at various points in the field of view and then deliver appropriate sequential wavefront corrections at each retinal location. This low-cost, low complexity approach could be used to double the retinal coverage of current AO scanning ophthalmoscopes. The second approach uses two wavefront correctors, the optimal axial positions of which will be determined by using the data on wavefront aberration changes with retinal location and wavelength across the population. This more complex approach aims to at least quadruple retinal coverage. The resulting increase in the field of view will be a major step towards translating AO ophthalmoscopy into a practical clinical tool for improving the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases.