Clinical Applications of Optical Coherence Angiography Imaging in Ocular Vascular Diseases

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) provides us with a non-invasive and efficient means of imaging anterior and posterior segment vasculature in the eye. OCTA has been shown to be effective in imaging diseases such as diabetic retinopathy; retinal vein occlusions; retinal artery occlusions; ocular ischemic syndrome; and neovascularization of the iris. It is especially useful with depth-resolved imaging of the superficial, intermediate, and deep capillary plexi in the retina, which enables us to study and closely monitor disease progression and response to treatment. With further advances in technology, OCTA has the potential to become a more widely used tool in the clinical setting and may even supersede ocular angiography in some areas.

Microvasculature alterations of peripapillary retina and macula in systemic lupus erythematosus patients without ocular involvement by optical coherence tomography angiography

“…However, fundus fluorescence angiography is not depth-resolved and therefore lacks the ability to distinguish the superficial from the DCP. 7…”

“…However, fundus fluorescence angiography is not depth-resolved and therefore lacks the ability to distinguish the superficial from the DCP. 7 Studies have shown that OCTA has low intravisit and intervisit blood flow index and vascular density variability. 15,20 Our findings demonstrated that the macular and peripapillary retinal microvascular networks were significantly reduced in SLE patients with longer disease durations, compared with NCs.…”

“…Optical coherence tomography angiography (OC-TA) is a noninvasive, novel technique that can obtain high-resolution cross-sectional images of retinal microvasculature in vivo using motion-contrast imaging of red blood cell movements via continuous B scans. 7 Recently, studies have identified vessel density reduction in SLE patients without LR using OCTA. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] However, these studies were limited to examining microvascular changes in the macula and did not examine microvascular changes in the optic disk of SLE patients.…”