Adaptive optics autofluoresence imaging of retinal degenerations
Ethan A. Rossi, PhD
Department of Ophthalmology
University of Pittsburgh Medical School Department of Bioengineerin
Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh
Biography
Dr. Rossi is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh, where he holds a secondary appointment in Bioengineering. Dr. Rossi completed his PhD training in Vision Science at the University of California, Berkeley in the laboratory of Austin Roorda. Following that Dr. Rossi completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of David Williams in the Centre for Visual Science at the University of Rochester and then joined the Advanced Retinal Imaging Alliance at Rochester as a research associate. Dr. Rossi's PhD research used adaptive optics to study the retinal and neural limits of human vision. In his postdoctoral training, Dr. Rossi improved adaptive optics autofluorescence techniques and applied them to the study of patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). As a research associate, Dr. Rossi worked to improve the clinical utility of adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscopy (AOSLO) and developed a new method that allowed retinal ganglion cells to be imaged in the living eye of humans for the first time. In his laboratory at Pittsburgh, Dr. Rossi has continued to develop and deploy advanced imaging technologies for the study of human disease. Some highlights of his recent work include evaluation of the retinal microscopic near-infrared autofluorescence in AMD, study of fixational eye movements following concussion, and improved nonconfocal AOSLO techniques for fine-scale tracking of microglia in healthy eyes and immune cells in patients with uveitis. Dr. Rossi’s current research interests include adaptive optics ophthalmoscopy, laser doppler holography, full field optical coherence tomography, aging, age-related macular degeneration, inherited retinal dystrophies, glaucoma, uveitis, whole eye transplantation, eye movements and concussion. Dr. Rossi has obtained funding for his work from several sources, including the National Eye Institute, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, Foundation Fighting Blindness, BrightFocus Foundation, the Hillman Foundation and the Eye & Ear Foundation of Pittsburgh.
Abstract
Fluorescence adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscopy (AOSLO) permits the intrinsic autofluorescence (AF) of the retina to be interrogated at a microscopic scale in the living human eye. This has allowed for in vivo imaging of individual RPE cells and the evaluation of the redistribution of RPE fluorophores in diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and inherited retinal degenerations (IRDs). This presentation will begin by briefly summarize the history of AF imaging in AOSLO and then will describe the various structural alterations to the AF pattern that have been detected in AMD and IRDs. Comparisons will also be made to other AOSLO modalities, such as confocal and nonconfocal AOSLO, and we will highlight how these different modalities can aid in the interpretation of AF images, where the combination of these modalities can lead to insight into the disease process. Some of the key findings that will be summarized will include AF changes in and around drusen and geographic atrophy in AMD. Another key finding that will be highlighted in this talk are the detection of what appear to be autofluorescent cones. This phenomenon will be discussed including the hypothesize that this may be a biomarker of cones that are stressed or undergoing changes on the path to degeneration. This presentation will also cover some of the quantitative metrics that can be derived from AF images and how these may be useful for the evaluation of new treatment strategies for patients with AMD and IRDs.