Design of eye phantom for optical coherence tomography angiography study.

Abstract

Tissue phantoms play an important role in validating biomedical imaging techniques. For optical imaging systems such as optical coherence tomography, creating layers of phantoms with different refractive indices is important. This paper explored various phantom materials to create eye-mimicking phantoms. The phantom also included microfluidic channels to mimic vasculature. To verify the optical properties of the created phantom, the transmission and reflection spectroscopy was performed using a photoluminescent spectrometer studying the complete visible and near infrared spectrum. We created a 3D model to house multiple layers that mimicked the retina at one end and the contact lens at the other, representing the anterior segment of the eye. A realistic retinal layer-mimicking, which, among other things, may pave the way for new combined imaging modalities.