Criteria in the simultaneous presentation of the images provided by a stand alone OCT/SLO system

A new instrument for simultaneous display of an en-face optical coherence tomography (OCT) image and of a confocal image (similar with that produced by the scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO)) for the retina in vivo is demonstrated. The system is based on a fiberised OCT configuration, where a separate bulk optical confocal receiver is introduced between the transversal galvanometer scanner and the OCT fiber arm. Criteria for presenting the two images are discussed. These address the resulting impact on the quality of each image as result of differences in the two imaging techniques, low coherence interferometry and confocal imaging. The transversal and depth pixel size are governed by different principles and consequently are generally different. Additionally, the OCT image is disturbed by Doppler shifts introduced by the transversal scanning and speckle.