KEYWORDS: Eye, Imaging systems, In vivo imaging, Refractor telescopes, Optical coherence tomography, Morphological analysis, Image resolution, Signal to noise ratio, 3D image processing, Point spread functions
Presence of a range of insects with different shape, size, and structural morphology of compound eye reveals the diverse pathways adopted by the nature striving to develop a flawless vision under given set of constraints. Exploration of various compound eyes allows researchers to understand better the various stages of visual system development in insects. By far, the most frequently used techniques for the investigation of structural morphology of a compound eye are scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, microcomputed tomography, and histology. The nature of implementation of these techniques restricts in vivo studies, and also the requirements for a complicated and costly setup put limitations on its availability at small research facilities. Despite the widespread acceptance of the optical coherence tomography (OCT) as a standard tool for the various ophthalmological investigations, reports on compound eye study using OCT are uncommon. We demonstrate the application of a full-field OCT (FF-OCT) system for depth-resolved structural imaging and morphological analysis of the compound eye dioptric system. We report the application of a time-domain FF-OCT system for depth-resolved en face and three dimensional in vivo imaging of dragonfly’s prominent compound eye with resolutions of 2.8 and 7.2 μm in lateral and axial directions, respectively. The study shows the effectiveness of the FF-OCT approach for label-free and rapid structural morphology analysis of compound eyes. The results have been compared with the histology results reported in literature.
An epidural injection is one among many medical procedures used for a long time for anaesthesia and pain associated with radiculopathy. It is the most preferred method for drug delivery for sciatica patients and local anaesthesia. It is crucial to precisely assess the exact position of the needle while performing the procedure. There have been several cases of paralysis, mainly after transforaminal epidural injections. So, there is always a high scope for a device that can precisely measure the needle position in real-time during the epidural injection. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become an essential tool in bio-imaging. An OCT is a Michelson interferometer with one of the mirrors replaced by the sample that we want to image. The main attraction offered by the system is that it is non-invasive. We report using an OCT-based optical fibre catheter, which can be used to guide the epidural injections. The catheter is made of single-mode optical fibre, and for focusing the light beam, a ball lens is designed and fabricated on the tip of the fibre. The lens is designed to have a diameter of 250 µm and will be inserted into the needle. The fibre catheter will be connected to a custom-made SD-OCT system equipped with a high speed inhouse made spectrometer. By analysing the A-scan images from the system, we can precisely calculate the thickness of the surface in front of the catheter. This data will guide the clinician to assess the needle position precisely in real-time.
The anatomical structures of the eye possessed by vertebrates and arthropods are of two major types when considering the natural image-forming systems. Study of these vision systems gives an opportunity to understand the solution to a specific problem developed by the Nature. Also, the understanding of the eye systems in the animal world is fascinating and important in the development of bioinspired manufacturing of dioptric systems for many advanced and sophisticated instruments. The techniques used to study anatomical features of a compound eye like electron microscopies (SEM, TEM), micro computed tomography (µCT), histology etc. have limitations, making them unsuitable for in vivo studies. In vivo imaging tools especially with high resolution imaging capability can provide an insight of visual ecology in greater detail. It also reduces the cost and the amount of time required to perform experiments. Full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT) is an expansion of OCT technique that uses high numerical aperture microscope objective to get highly resolved en face tomographic image of a biological sample in the in vivo condition. We report the application of an in-house developed time domain full-field optical coherence tomography (TD FF-OCT) system for depth resolved en face and three dimensional, in vivo imaging of dragonfly’s prominent compound eye.
We report a low cost Full-field Optical Coherence Tomography system for tissue demarcation to identify early morphological alteration of epithelial linings of the stomach. It can help to perform an accurate histological analyses non-invasively.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a powerful imaging modality capable of detecting subtle abnormalities at histological definition. OCT is extremely useful in the detection of epithelial cancers like oral squamous cell carcinoma. Oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) not only demonstrate architectural loss, but also display strong accumulations of keratin, a major tissue biomolecular scatterrer. Our preliminary observations of A-scan intensity data in a contrasting set of oral precancerous, and cancerous tissues have revealed a striking correlation with degree-of-keratinization and histological differentiation grade. This led us to formulate a study aiming to decipher the ‘high-intensity’ data in A-scan plots of normal, oral precancerous and cancerous human tissues. Our further observations in 600 A-scans (300 malignant and 300 non-malignant) suggested a pertinent link between the high-intensity data occurring in A-scan intensity profile and overall distribution of keratin in OSCC.
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