21 Mar Diabetic Retinopathy: OCTA May Improve Staging, Diagnosis and Monitoring
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Cunha-Vaz
José Cunha-Vaz, M.D., Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Ophthalmology
University of Coimbra, Portugal
President of AIBILI
Association for Innovation and Biomedical Research on Light and Image
Editor-in-Chief of Ophthalmic Research
Coordinator, Diabetic Retinopathy and Retinal Vascular Diseases,
European Vision Institute Clinical Research Network (EVICR.net)
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: In this study, we evaluated the clinical utility of quantitative measures of microvasculature in optical coherence tomographic angiography (OCTA). Although several studies have demonstrated the potential value of measures of microvasculature in the management of diabetic retinopathy (DR), our study uses the ROC curve to compare the overall value of different approaches. In this age matched population with a range of disease, the mean vessel density measured in the SRL had the highest AUC, indicating that it is best among the methods tested at differentiating normal eyes from eyes with diabetic retinopathy.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: Measurements in the DRL are affected by decorrelation tails, and the results of this study show that removing decorrelation tail artifacts improves the utility of density measurements made in this layer. However, with current technology, measurements of density in the DRL do not appear to have the same diagnostic efficacy as measurements in the SRL. Although we found that there is lower density in the eyes with diabetic retinopathy than in healthy eyes in the DRL, which is consistent with other studies, a comparison using the AUC shows the SRL to be more practically efficacious, at least as a diagnostic tool.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: Identification of eyes with diabetic retinopathy that show lower vascular density i.e. poor blood perfusion, in the macula may contribute to improved and individualized management of diabetic retinal disease.
MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Response: Use of OCTA measurements of vessel density and OCT-L measurements of retinal fluid (Cunha-Vaz et al. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis Sci. 2016; 57:6776–83. And Cunha-Vaz et al.Ophthalmology Retina 2017, in press) may replace fluorescein angiography in the follow-up of diabetic retinal disease.
MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.
Citation:
JAMA Ophthalmol. 2017 Mar 16. doi: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2017.0080. [Epub ahead of print]
Quantification of Retinal Microvascular Density in Optical Coherence Tomographic Angiography Images in Diabetic Retinopathy.
Durbin MK1, An L1, Shemonski ND1, Soares M2, Santos T2, Lopes M2, Neves C2, Cunha-Vaz J2.
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Last Updated on March 23, 2017 by Marie Benz MD FAAD