Keratometry and corneal topography using multiple delay element OCT

We have presented previously a novel method for the evaluation of the surface shape of an object, with immediate application to measurement of cornea shape. This method uses single shot C-scans obtained by using a multiple delay element (MDE) in the reference path of an OCT system. A calibrated MDE-OCT system can be used to measure the elevation of points on the cornea, in contrast to existing methods which are based on measurement of the cornea slope. The associated algorithm for extracting corneal topography data points from the MDE-OCT C-Scan image will be presented, data points which can then be used to calculate the Zernike coefficients for the cornea shape. The differences between the existing systems and the MDE-OCT method for keratometry and corneal topography are discussed.