Ultra-widefield handheld swept-source OCT for peripheral retinal imaging

We demonstrated a handheld swept-source optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging system with a 400 kHz vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) light source, a non-contact approach, and an unprecedented 105° field of view (FOV) that was capable of obtaining images from the posterior pole to peripheral retina in a single shot. A spiral scanning pattern allowing real-time visualization was also implemented here to improve the sampling efficiency. To the best of our knowledge, this is the widest FOV for a portable non-contact OCT retinal imaging system to date. Improvements to the FOV allow detection of peripheral pathology and aid better understanding of the role of peripheral pathology in retinal diseases.