For example, exudates and drusen often look similar with an ophthalmoscope, but can be differentiated 100% of the time with OCT. Localization of an abnormal finding to a specific layer of the retina often leads to a diagnosis that would not be otherwise possible. OCT, especially high-resolution spectral-domain (SD-OCT), permits the visualization of all retinal layers, as well as the vitreous and the choroid. More about this increasingly useful technology! To sign up for the You will find The ABCs of OCT to be a simple but effective way to learn Information on the relevant technology used in the case will also be Includes many additional images and a more comprehensive discussion. Installments of the newsletter will link to a Retina Revealed case that Goal is to help novices and experts alike to better understand OCT’s Take just 60 seconds to view the images and read the brief text. Well as a fundus photo to better elucidate the pathology. Possible, we will also include a normal OCT for comparison purposes, as Scan that illuminates a particular clinical condition. University of New York College of Optometry. In October, Review of Optometry will begin publishing a one-pageĮ-newsletter called The ABCs of OCT, authored by our group at the State However, as we will soon demonstrate, OCT can reveal a loss of rods or cones or even a complete compromise of all photoreceptors. A patient may lose 100 million photoreceptors, and yet the clinician will document an unremarkable ophthalmoscopic exam. von Helmholtz, and every subsequent observer, has failed to detect these vital cells with an ophthalmoscope. Histologically, half the retinal thickness is composed of the various components of the photoreceptors. The normal eye has about 120 million rods and six million cones. The undeniable fact that photoreceptors cannot be observed via ophthalmoscopy exemplifies the importance of OCT. In contrast, OCT yields information about retinal anatomy and histopathology that is often entirely invisible to ophthalmoscopy. Nearly all forms of fundus photography, including ultra-widefield imaging, accurately capture what we view directly with the ophthalmoscope. Today, virtually all eye clinicians perform ophthalmoscopy on all patients. Most credit Hermann von Helmholtz with the invention of the ophthalmoscope more than 150 years ago. One can argue that ophthalmoscopy and OCT are the two landmark developments in observing and diagnosing retinal disorders.

Layers of the retina