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Updated: Jan 3, 2026

Multimodal Volumetric Retinal Imaging by Oblique Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy oSLO and Optical Coherence Tomography OCT
Published on: August 4, 2018
Eyelashes Artifact in Ultra-Widefield Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography
Background And Objective:
To describe the presence of eyelashes artifact in ultra-widefield swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA) images.
Patients And Methods:
In this prospective, cross-sectional study, 52 healthy, young subjects were imaged with the SS-OCTA system. OCTA scans were taken in primary and extremes of gaze, and a montage was automatically created. The en face choriocapillaris images were then exported, and a semi-automated algorithm was used for subsequent quantitative analysis.
Results:
The authors noted the presence of some linear regions of reduced brightness, which were assumed to represent a shadow effect due to patient eyelashes. In order to quantify this effect, the authors performed a quantitative analysis of the superior and inferior regions in the retinal and choroidal vessels.
Conclusions:
The authors' qualitative and quantitative analysis showed the presence of regions of false-positive hypoperfusion secondary to eyelashes artifacts. To the authors' knowledge, this represents the first description of this new type of shadowing artifact affecting OCTA images. [Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina. 2019;50:740-743.].

