Spectroscopic imaging of nanoscale human tissue for disease diagnosis

Abstract

Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness in the world, but there is currently no tool which can provide early diagnosis of it, as its exact pathogenesis is still unknown. To deal with this problem, this project focuses on creating a novel imaging technique, Spectroscopic μOCT, which enables us to view the subcellular structures of the eye, specifically a mesh-like structure named Lamina Cribrosa clearly, as it is believed to play an important role in mechanism of glaucoma. The first part of the project was on simulation to predict the ideal results of how collagen fibrils in the Lamina Cribrosa would react in response to a light source. It is discovered that the collagen fibrils selectively scatter at longer wavelengths, and an important observation would be that a larger diameter of collagen fibrils would lead to a smaller centroid value. The second part of the project emphasizes on ex-vivo tissue validation and image processing. The coloured images obtained after spectroscopic analysis were sharp and thus enables us to visualize the Lamina Cribrosa clearly.