Measuring retinal fluorescein leakage into the human vitreous with a modified confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope

Abstract

A method is described to quantify blood-retinal barrier permeability to fluorescein. Data are collected from the vitreous of the human eye at two elapsed time intervals after intravenous fluorescein administration, using a modified confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope. Data processing includes fundus image enhancement, image alignment, profile construction, filtering and interpolation, exponential fit and integration. Automatic determination of the center of fovea is obtained by a cross-correlation process. Grid overlapping on fundus images and on permeability maps allows for matching chorioretinal morphological structures with alterations of blood-retinal barrier permeability to fluorescein.