Fundus Autofluorescence Procedure

Fundus autofluorescence (FAF) uses the naturally occurring fluorescent substances in the retina to create an image. Compounds in the body called fluorophores react to certain wavelengths of light by fluorescing, without the need to inject a fluorescent dye like sodium fluorescein or indocyanine green. FAF is a unique diagnostic imaging procedure to image relative lipofuscin fluorescence. FAF is also advantageous because it does not need an injected dye to provide fluorescence, making the imaging procedure non-invasive. FAF utilizes specially designed matched filter sets, where autofluorescence uses the existing fluorescein filters to determine the presence of autofluorescent compounds. There are two types of devices that can perform FAF specially equipped fundus cameras and cSLO systems. Each of these systems has a slightly different approach to excitation and emission wavelengths. The increased exposure needed to create an FAF image results in unwanted noise/grain in both types of capture systems.