REAL-TIME FULL-DEPTH VISUALIZATION OF POSTERIOR OCULAR STRUCTURES: Comparison Between Full-Depth Imaging Spectral...

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Medical Imaging
• Retinal Imaging

Background:

• Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is crucial for visualizing ocular structures.
• Spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT) and swept-source OCT (SS-OCT) are advanced OCT technologies.
• Real-time imaging of the entire vitreoretino-choroidal complex presents a challenge.

Observation:

• A manual double-enhancing full-depth imaging (FDI) technique was applied to SD-OCT.
• SS-OCT was also utilized for foveal scans in normal and pathological eyes.
• Image quality was assessed by independent physicians for specific ocular layers and boundaries.

Findings:

• FDI SD-OCT achieved real-time full-depth imaging in 98.3% of cases, significantly outperforming SS-OCT (37.5%).
• FDI SD-OCT demonstrated superior visualization of the premacular bursa compared to SS-OCT.
• SS-OCT provided greater sharpness of choroidal structures than FDI SD-OCT, while visualization of the interdigitation zone and chorioscleral boundary was comparable.

Implications:

• FDI SD-OCT offers a valuable compromise for real-time visualization of both vitreous and retinochoroidal structures.
• SS-OCT excels in imaging choroidal sublayer details.
• Selection of appropriate OCT technology and software is critical for specific clinical applications.