# Highspeed, motion-stabilized, handheld OCTA for pediatric imaging

> **NIH NIH R21** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $195,212

## Abstract

In pre-term infants the development of the retina and retinal vasculature is incomplete at birth and progresses
rapidly during the infant’s first few months of life. Many pediatric retinal diseases, including retinopathy of
prematurity (ROP), have a vascular etiology and are caused by mal-development of retinal vasculature during
this period of rapid growth. Preterm infants at risk for ROP make up 1.4% of the newborn population. Optical
coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging modality that can provide micron scale imaging of tissue
in vivo. This characteristic has made OCT the gold standard for diagnosis and monitoring of diseases in adult
ophthalmology. More recently the development of OCT angiography (OCTA) has led to new insights into
diseases such as diabetic retinopathy. However, the OCTA systems used in these studies are large tabletop
systems that cannot be readily used to image infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
 In order to bring OCT into the NICU, over the last decade our Duke team has become world leaders in the
development and use of handheld optical coherence tomography (HH-OCT) systems. We pioneered the use of
HH-OCT in the NICU. Our experience with the use and design of HH-OCT systems have pointed out a glaring
need in pediatric ophthalmology. While OCT technology in commercial tabletop systems has progressed rapidly
to include new highspeed OCT technologies capable of OCTA, commercial HH-OCT systems still use slower,
decade old OCT 32 kHz spectral domain OCT engines. Under previous NIH funding (RO1 EY025009) we have
leveraged our expertise in the development of handheld ophthalmic imaging systems to develop a prototype
handheld OCT angiography (HH-OCTA) probe based on a 200 kHz OCT engine that has provided initial OCTA
images of retinal vascular development and pathology in awake, pre-term infants in the NICU. This Research
Project Grant proposal aims to bring together a team of optical engineers and pediatric ophthalmologists with
expertise in the design and translation of HH-OCT systems for the purpose of developing significant
improvements to the HH-OCTA hardware descried by the following specific aims: Specific aim 1: Development
of a high speed, handheld OCTA system with 6-axis motion stabilization: For this proposal we will develop
a motion stabilized HH-OCTA system that uses and 800 kHz engine and feedback from an inertial measurement
unit to provide 6 axis active compensation of operator hand motion. Specific aim 2: Development of single
modality (OCT) retinal tracking and eye motion correction: We will develop new scanning protocols and
software that will enable real time detection, removal, and re-scanning of motion artifacts in without the need for
scanning laser ophthalmoscope or other similar imaging modality. The expected outcome of this proposal is
the design of a highspeed, motion stabilized HH-OCTA system capable of wide field, motion corrected imaging.
Given the vascular nature of ma...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10219274
- **Project number:** 5R21EY031839-02
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** JOSEPH A IZATT
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $195,212
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-08-01 → 2022-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10219274

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10219274, Highspeed, motion-stabilized, handheld OCTA for pediatric imaging (5R21EY031839-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10219274. Licensed CC0.

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