Abstract
Purpose :
Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) allows non-invasive visualization of retinal vessels in vivo. OCT-A was used to characterize the vascular network of the mouse retina and was compared to histology.
Methods :
A Spectralis OCT-A prototype operating at 70 kHz was used to investigate the vascular network in BALB/c and C3A.Cg-Pde6b+Prph2Rd2/J mice. Data were compared to confocal microscopy of retinal flat-mounts stained with isolectin IB4. For quantitative analysis the free NCI’s AngioTool software was used. Vessel density, the number of vessel junctions and endpoints were measured and compared between the imaging modalities.
Results :
Vasculature in two different retinal planes was identified and quantified. While the superficial vascular plexus showed similar features (e.g. vessel density) when measured with OCT-A or confocal scanning laser microscopy, the vessel density in the deep vascular network measured by OCT-A was significantly higher than with histology (p = 0.0166). The superficial capillary network in dystrophic mice (C3A.Cg-Pde6b+Prph2Rd2/J) seemed to remain unaltered, showing similar features as in BALB/c mice, whereas the deep capillary network was absent probably due to degeneration of the outer retinal layers.
Conclusions :
OCT-A is a relatively novel imaging method that can be applied in small animal models and will be useful to monitor changes in the vascular network in experimental settings.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.