Polarimetric high-resolution confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope

A polarimetric high-resolution confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope has been developed. The system incorporates a fixed linear polarizer in the illumination path and a rotatory quarter-wave plate and another fixed linear polarizer in the registration path. Retinal areas that are smaller than those provided by commercial instruments can be imaged. Series of four fundus images for independent polarization states in the second pass were recorded for different eyes and retinal locations and the spatially resolved Stokes vectors calculated. From those images, the contrast across retinal blood vessels was maximized and the corresponding image was reconstructed. In terms of polarization, the analysis of small retinal areas might prove to be useful in the improvement of retinal imaging and the enhancement of structural details in the early diagnosis of ocular pathologies. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.