Abstract
Purpose: :
To qualitatively assess the ability of commercially available optical coherence tomography (OCT) devices to visualize the macula through a full gas filled eye one day following pars plana vitrectomy (PPV).
Methods: :
A retrospective analysis of 16 eyes of 16 patients who underwent OCT imaging on post-operative day 1 following the placement of a C3F8 or SF6 gas bubble was performed. Data collected included sex, age, pre-op diagnosis, pupil size, type and amount of gas fill, lens status, capsule status, degree of corneal edema and anterior chamber inflammation. Images from three commercially available OCT devices were used: StratusOCT3 (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc, Dublin, CA, Cirrus HD-OCT (software version 4.0; Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc., Dublin, CA) and 3D OCT 1000, (TOPCON Medical Systems, New Jersey). A single retinal specialist qualitatively assessed the ability to delineate the contours of both the inner retina/gas interface and the retinal pigment epithelium layer from the line scans.
Results: :
There were 10 females and 6 males, with an age range 46 to 87 years. Indications for surgery were retinal detachment in 7 patients and macular hole in 9 patients. SF6 gas (25% or 30%) was used in 8 eyes and C3F8 (15% or 20%) in the other 8. On post-operative day 1, gas fill ranged from 80% - 95%. Pupil size ranged from 4mm to 9mm. Seven eyes were phakic and 9 eyes were pseudophakic, all with PC IOLs.The Cirrus HD-OCT was successfully able to image the retina in 14/16 eyes (87.5%). The Topcon 3D OCT 1000 was able to successfully image the retina in 9 eyes (56.0 %). Eleven eyes were successfully imaged with the Stratus OCT3 (68.8 %). Images were unobtainable on any machine in 2 patients (12.5 %). One of these patients had significant posterior capsule feathering due to gas, and the other had corneal edema.
Conclusions: :
OCT imaging through gas filled eyes is feasible on post-operative day 1 in the majority of eyes. Although all three OCT machines were able to image the retina, the Cirrus HD-OCT produced more consistent and higher quality images than the 3D OCT 100 and StratusOCT3. The ability to consistently and accurately image the retina on post-operative day 1 may prove to be an important component of evaluating early closure of macular holes and may serve as a guide to the necessity and/or duration of face down positioning.
Keywords: imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound) • imaging/image analysis: clinical • macular holes