Abstract
Purpose: :
To assess blood retinal barrier (BRB) changes non-invasive through structural information provided by Cirrus HD-OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA, USA).
Methods: :
Blood-retinal barrier has been assessed by fluorescein angiography and, recently, by the Retinal Leakage Analyzer (RLA) (1), a methodology based on confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope measurements of fluorescein distribution in the retina and vitreous. The recent launch of the Cirrus HD-OCT allows to assess detailed information on the retina structures. Healthy volunteers and patients with age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, cystoid macular edema, and choroidal neo-vascularization underwent RLA and Cirrus HD-OCT exams, which were registered through the respective fundus references. Histograms of OCT reflectivity intensity values collected between the ILM (inner limiting membrane) and RPE (retinal pigment epithelium) were built and compared. From the same eyes, histograms were also built and compared between areas of fluorescein leakage and areas of non-leakage, as identified by the RLA.
Results: :
Differences were shown to exist on the histograms of reflectivity intensity values of the Cirrus HD-OCT data between healthy volunteers and patients with different pathologies and within these eyes between areas of leakage and areas of non-leakage of fluorescein.
Conclusions: :
These findings suggest that the Cirrus HD-OCT may be used for detecting alterations of the BRB non-invasively.Ref. 1 - Bernardes, R.; Dias, J., Cunha-Vaz, J.; Mapping the Human Blood-Retinal Barrier Function; IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., 2005, 52, 106-116.
Clinical Trial: :
www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT00797524
Keywords: imaging/image analysis: clinical • imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound) • retina