Volume 9, Number 3, Article 21, Pages 1-17 doi:10.1167/9.3.21 http://journalofvision.org/9/3/21/ ISSN 1534-7362
Determination of foveal location using scanning laser polarimetry
Dean A. VanNasdale
School of Optometry, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
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Ann E. Elsner
School of Optometry, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
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Anke Weber
Department of Ophthalmology, RWTH Aachen, University Hospital, Aachen, Germany
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Masahiro Miura
Department of Ophthalmology, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan
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Bryan P. Haggerty
School of Optometry, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
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Abstract

The fovea is the retinal location responsible for our most acute vision. There are several methods used to localize the fovea, but the fovea is not always easily identifiable. Landmarks used to determine the foveal location are variable in normal subjects and localization becomes even more difficult in instances of retinal disease. In normal subjects, the photoreceptor axons that make up the Henle fiber layer are cylindrical and the radial orientation of these fibers is centered on the fovea. The Henle fiber layer exhibits form birefringence, which predictably changes polarized light in scanning laser polarimetry imaging. In this study 3 graders were able to repeatably identify the fovea in 35 normal subjects using near infrared image types with differing polarization content. There was little intra-grader, inter-grader, and inter-image variability in the graded foveal position for 5 of the 6 image types examined, with accuracy sufficient for clinical purposes. This study demonstrates that scanning laser polarimetry imaging can localize the fovea by using structural properties inherent in the central macula.

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History
Received September 11, 2008; published March 25, 2009
Citation
VanNasdale, D. A., Elsner, A. E., Weber, A., Miura, M., & Haggerty, B. P. (2009). Determination of foveal location using scanning laser polarimetry. Journal of Vision, 9(3):21, 1-17, http://journalofvision.org/9/3/21/, doi:10.1167/9.3.21.
Keywords
scanning laser polarimetry, birefringence, Henle fiber layer
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