Abstract

Optical methods for diagnosing and treating ocular disease are affected both by the scattering characteristics of tissues in the stratified layers of the fundus (retina, choroid, and sclera) and by the absorption of light by ocular pigments. Both reflectance and fluorescence methods for studying these pigments (melanin, hemoglobin, lipofuscin, macular, and visual pigments) have relied on numerous optical simplifications. Optical models^1,2 have been introduced to aid understanding of the overall optical characteristics of the fundus layers and to characterize the amount of melanin and hemoglobin in the choroid.

© 1990 Optical Society of America