Abstract
Purpose: :
To establish the correlation between the functional information of the blood-retinal barrier (BRB), assessed by the Retinal Leakage Analyzer (RLA), and the retinal structure information provided by the Cirrus OCT.
Methods: :
The Heidelberg Retina Angiograph (Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany) is a confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope that allows determining the volumetric distribution of fluorescein by scanning a set of 32 confocal planes in the human retina and vitreous. The RLA makes use of this information to compute maps of fluorescein leakage into the vitreous for the central 20º field-of-view macular area, hence providing information on the function of the BRB. Moreover, it also provides a fundus reference which allows locating where in the macula readings were performed.Cirrus OCT, a Spectral Domain OCT from Zeiss (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA, USA), allows to scan the central 20º field-of-view macular area using the 200x200 macular cube protocol, therefore providing detailed information on the structure of the retina, and to compute the retinal thickness from a total of 40000 A-scans. The added advantages over previous OCT versions are the detailed thickness map provided, the added resolution and the precise location on the macular area of where scans were made, either from the en-face OCT image or from the simultaneous LSLO (line SLO) fundus image.
Results: :
By registering RLA and OCT fundus references through the use of retinal landmarks, it is possible to establish the correlation between functional and structural information of the human retina to a resolution not available before.
Conclusions: :
Correlations between retinal leakage and retinal thickness maps are now possible to be established to a high degree of accuracy. Simultaneously, this integration of information allows for a detailed inspection of structures related to changes of leakage, thickness or both.
Keywords: imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound) • retina • development