Vascular abnormalities in patients with Stargardt disease assessed with optical coherence tomography angiography

Abstract

Vascular impairment in patients affected by STGD1 is concentrated in superficial and the deep retinal plexuses. Patients with atrophic changes have a greater reduction in CC density compared with controls ('dark atrophy'). Morphological vascular evaluation may become an important step for predicting STGD1 treatment outcomes.

Quantitative progression of retinitis pigmentosa by optical coherence tomography angiography

“…The analysis of the OCT-A images was performed as previously described 7,8 . All of the 3 × 3 mm OCT-A images were collected and exported from the system as a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) file into the National Institutes of Health ImageJ 1.8.0 (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA) image-processing software.…”

“…The image was converted from 8-bit into red green blue (RGB) color type and was subsequently split into the three channels. We chose the red channel as reference as previously performed 7,8 . The adjust threshold tool was set to default and applied, with the dark-background option selected.…”

“…The choriocapillaris is also visualized, but the small size and intersinusoidal spacing of its blood vessels cause the choriocapillaris to appear homogenous with bright areas representing blood flow 6 . The technology of OCT-A has been applied broadly to study vasculature changes in inherited retinal dystrophies, including RP, Stargardt disease, and choroideremia 7–11 .…”

Identification of imaging features that determine quality and repeatability of retinal capillary plexus density measurements in OCT angiography

“…The utility of this technique as an alternative to conventional fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography has been explored for numerous retinal and optic nerve diseases in the past few years with encouraging results 5–14. In addition to qualitative features (eg, subjective assessment of foveal ischaemia), several studies have now reported the use of quantitative measures (eg, retinal capillary plexus density measurements) to evaluate severity and prognosis of conditions such as diabetic retinopathy,15 age-related macular degeneration,16 Stargardt disease17 and retinitis pigmentosa 18…”

Optical coherence tomography angiography of the retina and choroid; current applications and future directions

“…OCTA has illustrated retinal and choroidal vascular abnormalities in diseases like retinopathy of prematurity, uveitis, foveal hypoplasia, choroidal tumors, macular telangiectasia, and Stargardt disease 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34. These OCTA findings have provided new insights into the pathogenesis of these interesting diseases.…”