Monte Carlo investigation on quantifying the retinal pigment epithelium melanin concentration by photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy

Xiao Shu; Wenzhong Liu; Hao Feng Zhang

doi:10.1117/1.JBO.20.10.106005

15 October 2015 Monte Carlo investigation on quantifying the retinal pigment epithelium melanin concentration by photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy

Xiao Shu, Wenzhong Liu, Hao Feng Zhang

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Journal of Biomedical Optics, Vol. 20, Issue 10, 106005 (October 2015). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.20.10.106005

Abstract

The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) melanin plays an important role in maintaining normal visual functions. A decrease in the RPE melanin concentration with aging is believed to be associated with several blinding diseases, including age-related macular degeneration. Quantifying the RPE melanin noninvasively is therefore important in evaluating the retinal health and aging conditions. Photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy (PAOM), as an optical absorption-based imaging technology, can potentially be applied to measure variations in the RPE melanin if the relationship between the detected photoacoustic (PA) signal amplitudes and the RPE melanin concentrations can be established. In this work, we tested the feasibility of using PA signals from retinal blood vessels as references to measure RPE melanin variation using Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. The influences from PAOM axial resolution, the depth and diameter of the retinal blood vessel, and the RPE thickness were examined. We proposed a calibration scheme by relating detected PA signals to the RPE melanin concentrations, and we found that the scheme is robust to these tested parameters. This study suggests that PAOM has the capability of quantitatively measuring the RPE melanin in vivo.

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Xiao Shu, Wenzhong Liu, and Hao Feng Zhang "Monte Carlo investigation on quantifying the retinal pigment epithelium melanin concentration by photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy," Journal of Biomedical Optics 20(10), 106005 (15 October 2015). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.20.10.106005

Published: 15 October 2015

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