Principle of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and its application in rodents.

<p>A) Schematic diagram of spectral-domain (SD) OCT. Green arrows indicate efferent, red arrows afferent light. B) Comparison of OCT to conventional ophthalmic imaging techniques. Top left: Conventional techniques either yield surface images of the retina (“fundus”), or in case of Scanning-Laser Ophthalmoscopy (SLO), confocal horizontal sections. Top right: Example of an SLO image of the central murine retina. Bottom left: In contrast, the OCT provides high-resolution vertical sections. Bottom right: Example of an OCT slice from the central murine retina in comparison to matching standard light microscopy. C) Representation of retinal layers in OCT and histology. See text for details. D) OCT recording setup for rodents. The schematic drawing of a mouse marks the recording position on the XYZ table. The eye is directly facing the OCT recording unit with a 78 dpt. lens attached.