# Visible-light optical coherence tomography for clinical glaucoma management

> **NIH NIH R44** · OPTICENT, INC. · 2022 · $705,941

## Abstract

Project Summary
This SBIR Phase IIB project focuses on developing, characterizing, and validating the next-generation clinical
visible-light optical coherence tomography (vis-OCT) as a clinical tool to improve the clinical management of
glaucoma. The new vis-OCT (Aurora X3) by Opticent, Inc. will offer 1.3-µm axial resolution at an A-line rate of
up to 250 kHz. The new Aurora X3 system embodies a newly-designed red laser scanning internal eye fixation
and a fully integrated near-infrared scanning laser ophthalmology with a principally new balanced-detection vis-
OCT, which approaches shot-noise limited imaging for the first time. The adoption of Aurora X3 will address two
unmet needs in clinical glaucoma diagnosis and detection of progression: (1) the ability to measure retinal
sublayer structure and (2) to accurately assess local retinal hemoglobin oxygen saturation (sO2). The earliest
structural changes in glaucoma are thought to be retracting retinal ganglion cell (RGC) dendrites in the inner
plexiform layer (IPL). Identifying loss of synapses, either by decreased scattering or by the change in IPL
sublayers’ thicknesses, could serve as an earlier and more sensitive biomarker for glaucoma than any other
clinical standard. Measuring retinal sO2 and specific arteriole-venule couplets can determine the oxygen
extraction in the regions served by those vessels, and our preliminary data indicate that regions showing damage
in glaucomatous eyes have lower oxygen extraction than similar areas in healthy eyes. This observation
suggests that such oxygen extraction abnormalities can be measured well beyond the “floor effect” threshold
noted with conventional OCT, allowing assessment of disease beyond the time point that conventional structural
OCT becomes insensitive. This project will conduct a multi-site clinical test using the latest Aurora X3 clinical
vis-OCT at New York University, Stanford University, and University of Virginia to validate the proposed IPL and
sO2 biomarkers in glaucoma.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10484749
- **Project number:** 2R44EY026466-04
- **Recipient organization:** OPTICENT, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Roman Kuranov
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $705,941
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2016-08-01 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10484749

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10484749, Visible-light optical coherence tomography for clinical glaucoma management (2R44EY026466-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10484749. Licensed CC0.

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