OCT Angiography: The Newest Frontier and Future for the Revolutionary Technology of Imaging in Eye Care

What is OCT Angiography (OCTA)?
Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) provides three-dimensional (3D) imaging of the anterior segment, retina, and optic nerve head (similar to a C T Scan of the eye) allowing early diagnosis and timely management of eye diseases.

Indications:
Used to diagnose and manage retinal diseases which are major causes of blindness such as:
• diabetic retinopathy
• age-related macular degeneration (ARMD)
• artery and retinal vein occlusions (BRVO)
• glaucoma

Advantages over FFA
• A high-speed device- produces images in 10-15 seconds; FFA takes over 10-15 minutes
• Non invasive; FFA needs injections
• No dye injected, instead uses motion contrast. Hence no leakage, staining and other side effects such as nausea and severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis)
• Can acquire different scan sizes in the macula and the optic disc in about 3 seconds
• Can scan the other eye in same sitting, unlike FFA, which is one eye per sitting
• Provides accurate size and localization. FFA results are highly variable and often obscured by subjective interpretation by doctors
• Visualizes both the retinal and choroidal vasculature
• Can be used for routine screening examinations for early diagnosis of vascular abnormalities, and for routine follow-up examinations to evaluate the efficacy of treatments such as intra-vitreal injections.
“With OCT angiography, we now have a noninvasive, safe, and effective tool to visualize the earliest pathological changes in the most common diseases that cause blindness, leading to earlier diagnosis and more successful treatments”, says Dr Rahul Shroff, Vitreo Retinal surgeon at Shroff Eye, Mumbai.