A comprehensive review of diagnostic imaging technologies to evaluate the retina and the optic disk

Abstract

Ophthalmic imaging has undergone a revolution over the past 20 years with increasingly efficient and high-definition modalities now available. The use of wide-field retinal angiography, fundus autofluorescence, state-of-the-art spectral domain, and enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography has proven to be effective in this field. This comprehensive review is devoted to retinal and optic disk imaging modalities and their clinical implications. It is based on the published literature in the field of ophthalmic imaging with a focus on recent advances. Ophthalmic imaging plays a crucial role in the management of patients with both isolated retinal disease and systemic diseases with ocular manifestations. Evolving technology enables imaging of ocular disease in vivo, facilitating objective assessment of disease progression and response to treatment. These latest technical improvements in ophthalmic imaging are now a part of standard ophthalmic assessment in academic centers and most private practices. In the coming years, further advances may improve diagnostic sensitivity and enable cost-effective screening of large populations.

Human photoreceptor cone density measured with adaptive optics technology (rtx1 device) in healthy eyes

“…Optical coherence tomography, initially mirror, then spectral, and now also enabling deep analysis of the structures, including the choroid, is presently the gold standard for diagnosis of disease in the posterior segment of the eye. [2,3] …”

Anti‐vascular endothelial growth factors treatment of wet age‐related macular degeneration: from neurophysiology to cost‐effectiveness

“…In comparison to FAG, OCT is shown to have sensitivity of 94% and specificity of 89% in detecting new CNV lesion (Bajwa et al. ).…”

“…With OCT, the retinal thickness can be measured, and thus this parameter can be used as a monitoring tool to assess the response to treatment with the wet AMD (Bajwa et al. ).…”

Three‐dimensional visualization of rat retina by X‐ray differential phase contrast tomographic microscopy

“…However, the total retinal thickness is extremely thin, about 217 µm (Duong et al, ) in most mammalian species. It is difficult for visualizing the fine retinal structures by the imaging methods widely used in ophthalmologic examination, except optical coherence tomography (OCT) (Bajwa, Aman, & Reddy, ). Since introduced in 1991, with the resolution of OCT elevated to 10 μm (Syed, Larin, Dickinson, & Larina, ), the technique has been widely used in visualizing the layered retinal structure and the thickness measurement (Berger et al, ; Massin et al, ; Wylęgała, Teper, Dobrowolski, & Wylęgała, ).…”