Abstract
Presentation Description :
The leading causes of blindness such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR) and glaucoma are all associated with impaired circulation. Examination of ocular circulation is critical for the assessment of these eye diseases. Dye-based angiography had become standard methods to detect ischemia and neovascularization (NV) in these diseases. However, dye injection is too invasive for routine screening and monitoring. Several methods has been developed to use high-speed optical coherence tomography (OCT) for non-invasive evaluation of the ocular circulation that could prove revolutionary in the practice of ophthalmology. In OCT angiography, the flow-induced variation in signal intensity or phase is used as intrinsic contrast to detect vessels as small as capillaries. En face OCT angiography can be used to assess macular ischemia and retinal NV, measure choroidal NV flow area in AMD, as well as measure decreased retinal vessel density in glaucoma. En face Doppler OCT, which maps the axial velocity component in large retinal vessels, can measure the total retinal blood flow (TRBF) in microliter per minute absolute volumetric flow rate with better repeatability than previous methods. The TRBF have been found to be significantly reduced in DR and glaucoma. Together, these 2 functional OCT techniques could greatly enhance the diagnosis and monitoring of retinal and optic nerve diseases.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.