Characterization of Long Working Distance Optical Coherence Tomography for Imaging of Pediatric Retinal Pathology

PURPOSE: We determined the feasibility of fovea and optic nerve head imaging with a long working distance (LWD) swept source optical coherence tomography (OCT) prototype in adults, teenagers, and young children. METHODS: A prototype swept source OCT system with a LWD (defined as distance from the last optical element of the imaging system to the eye) of 350 mm with custom fixation targets was developed to facilitate imaging of children. Imaging was performed in 49 participants from three age groups: 26 adults, 16 children 13 to 18 years old (teenagers), and seven children under 6 years old (young children) under an approved institutional review board protocol. The imaging goal was to acquire high quality scans of the fovea and optic nerve in each eye in the shortest time possible. OCT B-scans and volumes of the fovea and optic nerve head of each eligible eye were captured and graded based on four categories (lateral and axial centration, contrast, and resolution) and on ability to determine presence or absence of pathology. RESULTS: LWD-OCT imaging was successful in 88 of 94 eligible eyes, including seven of 10 eyes of young children. Of the successfully acquired OCT images, 83% of B-scan and volumetric images, including 86% from young children, were graded as high-quality scans. Pathology was observed in high-quality OCT images. CONCLUSIONS: The prototype LWD-OCT system achieved high quality retinal imaging of adults, teenagers, and some young children with and without pathology with reasonable alignment time. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: The LWD-OCT system can facilitate imaging in children.