Optical coherence tomography angiography in clinical practice

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography angiography (Octa) is a novel non-invasive tool that works on the principle of “decorrelation.” it is built on the platform of optical coherence tomography (Oct). it is still in its infancy and has a tremendous potential applicability for diagnosing retinal and choroidal vascular diseases. its non-invasive nature and the ability to generate images of retinal and choroidal vasculature allows it to replace and/or supplement the current angiographic gold standards, fluorescein angiography (FA) and indocyanine green angiography (ICGA), if not in all but certainly in most of retinal and choroidal pathologies. Still there exists a major challenge in terms of its wide scale availability, equipment and processing techniques, presence of artifacts, limitations of imaging capability, lack of common vocabulary among retinal specialists for interpretation. in this review we intend to describe this novel technique by highlighting its principle, comparison with fa and icga, its applicability in various clinical scenarios like diabetic retinopathy, age related macular degeneration, retinal venous occlusion, choroiditis, in routine practice. However, further studies are needed to more definitively determine OCTA’s utility in the clinical setting and to establish if this technology may offer a non-invasive option of visualizing the retinal vasculature in detail. (Cite this article as: Nagpal M, Juneja r. Optical coherence tomography angiography in clinical practice. Minerva Oftalmol 2018;60:85-97. DOi: 10.23736/S0026-4903.18.01801-9)