Interpretation of OCT and OCTA images from a histological approach: clinical and experimental implications.

Publication date: Available online 3 January 2020Source: Progress in Retinal and Eye ResearchAuthor(s): Nicolás Cuenca, Isabel Ortuño-Lizarán, Xavier Sánchez-Sáez, Oksana Kutsyr, Henar Albertos-Arranz, Laura Fernández-Sánchez, Natalia Martínez-Gil, Agustina Noailles, José Antonio López-Garrido, Maribel López-Gálvez, Pedro Lax, Victoria Maneu, Isabel PinillaAbstract:Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) have been a technological breakthrough in the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of many retinal diseases, thanks to its resolution and its ability to inform of the retinal state in seconds, which gives relevant information about retinal degeneration.In this review, we present an immunohistochemical description of the human and mice retina and we correlate it with the OCT bands in health and pathological conditions. Here, we propose an interpretation of the four outer hyperreflective OCT bands with a correspondence to retinal histology: the first and innermost band as the external limiting membrane (ELM), the second band as the cone ellipsoid zone (EZ), the third band as the outer segment tips phagocytosed by the pigment epithelium (PhaZ), and the fourth band as the mitochondria in the basal portion of the RPE (RPEmitZ). The integrity of these bands would reflect the health of photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium.Moreover, we describe how the vascular plexuses vary in different regions of the healthy human and mice retina, using OCT...
Source: Progress in Retinal and Eye Research - Category: Opthalmology Source Type: research