Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose:Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a new, noninvasive technique that provides high resolution retinal thickness profiles of the central retina allowing an objective assessment. The purpose of this study was to quantify macular retinal thickness using OCT and to correlate the OCT measurements with visual acuity, ophthalmoscopy and fluorescein angiography (FA) in patients with cystoid macular edema (CME) associated with uveitis. Methods:Retrospective analysis of uveitis patients with CME that were evaluated concurrently with a complete ophthalmic examination including ETDRS visual acuity testing, indirect biomicroscopy with a 90 or 78 diopter lens, standard fluorescein angiography and OCT was performed. An arbitrary grading system (ranging from 0 to 4) was used to quantify the degree of macular edema in FA. Results:A total of 109 eyes of 58 patients with CME associated with uveitis were examined. The OCT mean central retinal thickness was 302.6 microns, the average central macular fluorescein leakage score was 1.6 and the mean visual acuity was 20/50. The OCT mean central retinal thickness showed a moderate positive correlation with the degree of macular fluorescein leakage (r=0.58). When the central 1 mm retinal map thickness was used this correlation improved slightly (r=0.62). The correlation between the presence of CME by indirect biomicroscopy with either FA or OCT was weak. There was an intermediate positive correlation between the visual acuity and retinal thickness as determined by either OCT or FA, particularly in patients without co–existing macular lesions or scars. The sensitivity of OCT in detecting the angiographically evident cystoid macular edema in uveitis patients was 89%, and the specificity was 62%. Conclusions:Optical coherence tomography allows quantification of retinal thickness in cystoid macular edema associated with uveitis. However, the retinal thickness measured by OCT does not always correlate well with the degree of macular fluorescein leakage or visual acuity.
Keywords: uveitis–clinical/animal model • imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound) • imaging/image analysis: clinical