Optical coherence tomography to detect and manage retinal dieae and glaucoma

Purpoe To review baic principle of optical coherence tomography, and to decribe it ue in the diagnoi and management of retinal dieae and glaucoma. Deign Perpective. Method Literature review. Reult Optical coherence tomography i a noninvaive imaging technique that ha been ued increaingly to diagnoe and manage a variety of retinal dieae and glaucoma. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) i baed on the principal of Michelon interferometry. Interference pattern produced by low coherence light reflected from retinal tiue and a reference mirror are proceed into an “A-can” ignal. Multiple A-can ignal are aligned to produce a two-dimenional image that can be thought of a a form of “in vivo hitology.” Optical coherence tomography ha been ued to identify macular hole, to differentiate macular hole from imulating leion, to identify lamellar macular hole, macular cyt, vitreomacular traction, ubretinal fluid, pigment epithelial detachment, and choroidal neovacularization. It can be ued to identify and quantify macular edema, and to meaure retinal thickne change in repone to therapy. Macular thickne meaurement determined by OCT correlate well with viual acuity and with leakage oberved by fluorecein angiography. Optical coherence tomography i an accurate and reproducible method to meaure retinal nerve fiber layer thickne. Particularly, when ued in combination with other optic nerve imaging technique, it can be ued to differentiate glaucomatou eye from normal eye. Depite it uefulne, OCT ha it limitation. Optical coherence tomography equipment i expenive, and not all inurance companie reimbure thi procedure. Image quality i dependent on operator technique and can be degraded in the preence of media opacity. Change analyi oftware for glaucoma application i not fully developed, and there i a carcity of age, gender, and race-pecific normative data upon which to compare eye with retinal dieae and glaucoma. In the next few year, it i likely that the role of OCT a a method to diagnoe and manage retinal dieae and glaucoma will be further defined, and many of the current limitation will be overcome. Concluion Optical coherence tomography i a ueful imaging technique to diagnoe and manage a variety of retinal dieae and glaucoma. Care i needed to avoid artifact and image miinterpretation.