Abstract
Purpose::
To evaluate the clinical use and worth of a new measurement tool for quantitative study of macular edema in macular pathologies.
Methods::
Starting from B-scan images from OCT/SLO, a quantitative study was performed using an improved measurement software from a prototype implementation of image enhancement, binarization of the grey levels, application of median filtering, blob analysis (ARVO 2006, Azzolini et al.). We investigate the extension and variability of macular oedema on selected patients during medical and surgical follow up. Special care has been applied to ensure the repeatability and reproducibility of the clinical data. 30 eyes of 25 patients affected by macular pucker, macular hole and diabetic macular edema were included in the study as early investigation.
Results::
In all examined cases, our clinical data showed that the measurement tool can recognize all iporeflective dark area on pixel basis, by edge detection, elimination of outlayers and point to point distances evaluation. Minimal measured changes on extension and entity of pathologic oedema, not subjectively appreciated by the examiner, were always precisely measured, enhancing intraretinal abnormalities.
Conclusions::
The diagnostic measurement software tool showed its important clinical role for a medical and surgical follow up. On standard OCT/SLO B-scans, the accurate measurements of dark areas (coherent light iporeflective areas) recognized as macular edema are useful for clinical purposes. The identification and evaluation of these pathologic areas should ameliorate our clinical knowledge to study clinical aspects at different stages, both pre and post operative.
Keywords: imaging/image analysis: clinical • imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound) • macula/fovea