Abstract
Purpose :
To develop a consensus nomenclature for reporting optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) findings in the field of retinal vascular diseases.
Methods :
Members of the Retina Society, the EURETINA and the Japanese Retina and Vitreous Society choose to participate in responding to an online questionnaire on their preferred terminology for reporting OCT-A findings in retinal vascular diseases. The respondents were divided into two groups based on the number of their publications in OCTA and retinal vascular diseases, including OCTA “experts” group who have five or more publications and the “users” who have less than five publications. Then an expert team of 25 OCTA experts in the field of retinal vascular diseases was formed and Delphi rounds based on the initial results of the survey are being carried out.
Results :
The complete responses of 85 retina specialists were included in the analysis. Thirty-one were categorized as "experts". There was a consensus in both groups that OCTA parameters such as foveal avascular zone (FAZ) parameters, areas of nonperfusion and presence of neovascularization (NV) should be implemented in the identification and staging of DR and that OCTA can be applied to differentiate between ischemic vs. non ischemic retinal vein occlusion. Diabetic macular ischemia (DMI) can be also assessed via OCTA. Further, there was consensus that the terminology should differ based on the underlying causes of decreased vascular flow signal. There was disagreement in other areas, such as which terms should be applied to describe decreased OCTA signal from different causes, the definition of widefield OCTA and how to quantify DMI and area of decreased flow signal. These discrepancies form the basis for the upcoming expert Delphi rounds that aim to develop a standardized OCTA nomenclature. First results of the following Delphi rounds will be presented as well.
Conclusions :
While there was agreement in some areas, significant differences were found in many areas of OCTA terminology among all respondents, but also between the “expert” and “user” groups. This indicates the need for standardization of the nomenclature among all specialists in the field of retinal vascular diseases.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.