Delineating the anatomy of the ciliary body using hybrid optical and photoacoustic imaging.

We demonstrate the application of an extended field of view hybrid microscope, integrating distinct optical and photoacoustic (PA) contrast modes, for the precise three-dimensional anatomy delineation of the ciliary body/iris structures in healthy rabbit eyes ex vivo. The glutaraldehyde-induced autofluorescence and the intrinsic PA signals provided by each of the employed imaging modalities were characterized by a high spatial complementarity, offering thus rich morphological information regarding the pars plana and pars plicata ciliary body portions, the iris, as well as, the attached zonule fiber strands. The bimodal microscopy approach presented could find application on studies involving the ocular accommodation mechanism or pathological ciliary body conditions, as a powerful diagnostic technique contributing to the understanding of ocular physiology and function.