Hassenstein A., Schwartz R., Richard G.

University Eye Hospital Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20251 Hamburg, Germany

Purpose: OCT is a non-invasive imaging modality for high-resolutional retinal morphology in-vivo. Aim of the study was to visualize morphological changes of subfoveal classic CNV before and after PDT.
Methods: 50 patients were examined by biomicroscopy, fluorescein angiography (FAG) and OCT. All patients suffered from a predominantly classic subfoveal CNV. The pathological findings in OCT and fluorescein angiography before and after PDT were compared.
Results: OCT showed in all cases a thickening of the high reflective retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), cystoid changes of the neuroretina (11%) and a detachment of the sensory retina (29%) before PDT. After treatment OCT revealed a flattening of the sensory retina, persistence of the RPE thickening and resolution of the the cystoid structures within the neuroretina (5%). 50% of the patients did not show any changes in OCT before and after PDT; 30% had a detachment of the sensory retina only after PDT and in 20% the retinal detachment resolved after PDT. There is no significant correlation of visual acuity and detachment of sensory retina.
Conclusions: The cystoid neuroretinal structures were only detected by OCT whereas FAG did not reveal the typical pattern of cystoid edema. OCT provides additional information of leakage either cystoid or detached. This might lead in near future to an influence of the indication for retreatment by PDT by OCT. It is a suitable tool concerning morphological aspects for follow-up of subfoveal CNV after PDT.

Copyright © Deutsche Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft, 2001. All rights reserved.

Last updated: 

Webdesign: SPALLEK.COM