ObjectiveTo observe the application value and therapeutic efficacy of wide-field digital pediatric retinal imaging system (RetcamⅢ) fundus fluorescein angiograms (FFA) assisted photocoagulation on familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR). MethodsThe study included 46 eyes of 34 patients with staging 2 FEVR. All patients received color fundus photography and FFA under general anesthesia. The blood vessel reliability of color fundus photography and FFA was comparatively determined. Binocular indirect ophthalmoscope laser photocoagulation was applied to peripheral retina with abnormal leakage as indicated by FFA, the wavelength was 532nm, the duration was 0.25 s and the energy was 200-280 mW. After laser photocoagulation, fundus imaging and FFA was repeated. Further laser photocoagulation was immediately added to areas with vessel leakage but missing the photocoagulation. After treatment, the mean follow-up duration was 14.4 months. The follow up focused on neovascularization, exudative lesions, vitreous traction and merging of photocoagulation spots within 3 months, and on fibrosis membrane resulting in macular traction, tractional retinal detachment, vitreous hemorrhage or Coats disease-like retinal exudates after 3 months. ResultsIt was hard to identify the blood vessels based on the color fundus images and some avascular zone maybe missed. Neovascularization can't be determined by shape of the blood vessels. On the other hand, those new blood vessels can be easily recognized by FFA as leakage sites at the boundary of avascular zone. The surgeon could quickly and accurately locate the FEVR area guided by the color fundus images and FFA from same angle under binocular indirect ophthalmoscope. During the treatment, there was no retinal FEVR area missed laser photocoagulation for all patients. There was no neovascularization, exudative lesions, vitreous traction within 3 months, and no fibrosis membrane, tractional retinal detachment, vitreous hemorrhage or Coats disease-like retinal exudates after 3 months. There were no ocular and systemic complications during and after the FFA and laser photocoagulation. ConclusionWide-field RetcamⅢFFA can help retinal specialists to identify abnormal neovascularization, locate the lesion area, and thus increase the success rate of laser photocoagulation, reduce the ocular and systemic complications for FEVR.
Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a new and non-invasive imaging technique that is able to detect blood flow signal in the retina and the choroid within seconds. OCTA is different from the traditional angiography methods. The major advantages of OCTA are that it can observe blood flow signal in different layers of the retina and the choroid without injecting any dye, provide blood flow information that traditional angiography cannot provide, and enrich pathophysiological knowledge of the retinal and choroidal vascular diseases., which help us to make an accurate diagnosis and efficient evaluation of these diseases. However there is a large upgrade potential either on OCTA technique itself or on clinical application of OCTA. We need to fully understand the advantage and disadvantage, and differences of OCTA and traditional angiography. We also need to know how to interpret the result of OCTA. With that we could make a fast diagnosis in a non-invasive way and improve our knowledge of the retinal and choroidal vascular diseases.
OCT angiography (OCTA) is a fast, noninvasive and quantifiable new technique, which is especially suitable for long-term follow-up in patients with hereditary retinochoroidal degeneration, such as retinitis pigmentosa, Best vitelliform macular dystrophy, adult onset foveomacular vitelliform dystrophy, doyne honeycomb retinal dystrophy, choroideremia and Stargardt disease. During the follow-up, clinicians can find the subtle signs that explain disease development from the blood flow imaging, quantitatively describe the vascular density, timely detect and treat choroidal neovascularization. It is significant to explore the etiology and monitor the course of these diseases. With the development of more treatments for these diseases, OCTA parameters can also be used as indicators to evaluate and compare different therapeutic effects. In the future, more quantitative indicators of OCTA will be applied to evaluate the course of hereditary retinochoroidal degeneration, and provide valuable basis for early diagnosis and treatment.
Objective To observe the characteristics of multiple evanescent white dot syndrome (MEWDS) with modern multimodal imaging modalities. Methods This was a retrospective case study. Eleven patients (11 eyes) diagnosed with MEWDS were enrolled. There were 10 females and 1 male, mean age was 27.6 years (range 15-41 years). The period between disease onset and visiting to the hospital was between 2 to 13 days, the average time was 4.7 days. All the patients underwent examinations of best corrected visual acuity, slit-lamp biomicroscope, indirect ophthalmoscope, fundus color photography, fundus autofluorescence (FAF), fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA), indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) and spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). The mean follow up duration was 3.2 months. The imaging characteristics were compared. Results Fundus color photography showed foveal orange-red granularity in all eyes. FAF showed strong autofluorescence with a vague boundary. FFA showed a variable number of highly fluorescent fine needle-like dots arranged in a ring in the early stage, and fluorescence remained in the late stage. ICGA showed advanced lesions of vague boundary merged into a large plaque of deep retinal hypofluorescence. SD-OCT showed the hyperreflectant material deposit over the retinal pigment epithelium and extending anteriorly through the interdigitation zone, ellipsoid layer, and toward the external limiting membrane. At the site of extrafoveal lesions, SD-OCT revealed the presence of discontinuities or disruptions centered on the ellipsoid zone to include the interdigitation. Conclusions In MEWDS patients, fundus photography showed foveal orange-red granularity; FFA showed early fluorescent dots distributed in a ring pattern; ICGA showed hypofluorescent lesions in the later stage; SD-OCT showed disruption of the interdigitation zone and ellipsoid zone and accumulations of hyperreflective material that was of variable size and shape; FAF showed strong autofluoresce areas that correlated to spots observed with FFA and ICGA.
Retinal angiomatous proliferation (RAP) is a genetic distinct subgroup of exudative age-related macular degeneration which shows a rapid and severe vision loss and high recurrence rates. The pathophysiological mechanisms of RAP is unclear. Recent histopathologic study and en face optical coherence tomography angiography have furthered our understanding of RAP. Clinical features frequently associated with RAP include bilateral disease, presence of reticular pseudodrusen and pigment epithelial detachments. Indocyanine green angiography is the gold standard diagnostic tool. Recently, more and more accurate optical coherence tomography has improved the acknowledgement of stage and diagnosis of RAP. The treatment efficacy of RAP is highly dependent on the stage. Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy is currently the first line of treatment. Other treatment options including combination of photodynamic therapy with antiangiogenic agent intravitreal injections also achieve a reasonable therapeutic outcome. There remain several important questions such as pathogenesis and treatment regimen, to be answered in future RAP research studies.
Objective To observe the imaging features of ultra-wide field short wave fundus autofluorescence (SW-FAF) in eyes with multiple evanescent white dot syndrome (MEWDS), and analysis the correspondence to conventional images. Methods It was a retrospective case series study. Thirteen patients (14 eyes) diagnosed with MEWDS were enrolled. There were 12 females and 1 male, aged from 22 to 57 years, mean age was 34.5 years. All the eyes underwent fundus color photography, optical coherence tomography (OCT) and ultra-wide field autofluorescence (FAF). Simultaneous fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) and indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) were performed in 6 eyes. The characteristic changes of SW-FAF in studied eyes were observed and compared with the images of FFA and ICGA. All the eyes were followed up every 1 to 2 weeks, with an average of 16.7 weeks. The characteristic images of SW-FAF and corresponding OCT were studied during follow up. Results MEWDS presented with numerous multiple hyper-autofluorescent spots, sized from 50-500 μm, with a vague boundary in ultra-wide field SW-FAF. These spots located mainly at the peripapillary area and the posterior pole with a confluent pattern. The lesions extended to the mid-peripheral retina as well and became more scattered. The distribution of the hyper-autofluorescent lesions in SW-FAF corresponded roughly to that of the greyish-white spots seen in color photograph and the hyper-fluorescent spots detected by FFA. It was consistent with the distribution of hypo-fluorescent spots in late-phase ICGA as well. But the number of the spot showed in FAF is much more than that in FFA, and slightly less than that in ICGA. The OCT scans through the hyper-autofluorescent lesions in SW-FAF showed impairment of outer retina. After the recovery, the hyper-autofluorescent spots disappeared with the outer retina structure repaired completely. Conclusions MEWDS presented with numerous multiple hyper-autofluorescent spots which located mainly at the peripapillary area in ultra-wide field SW-FAF. The distribution of the hyper-autofluorescent lesions in SW-FAF corresponded roughly to color photograph, FFA and ICGA in late-phase. The OCT scans through the hyper-autofluorescent lesions in SW-FAF showed impairment of outer retina.
Ultra-wide-field fluorescein angiography (UWFA) can obtain very wide retinal images (up to 200°), and is a very helpful tool to detect peripheral retinal lesions which cannot be found by other imaging methods. Analyzing the characteristics of the UWFA images may improve our understanding, treatment outcomes and management strategies of ocular fundus diseases. However this technology is still in its premature stage, there is still a lot of work to be done to improve its clinical application and study the characteristics and clinical meanings of these peripheral retinal lesions.
Objective To observe the effects of subretinal transplantation of rat mesenchymal stem cells (rMSCs) on Sodium Iodate (SI)induced retinal degeneration. Methods One hundred and twenty BrownNorway (BN) rats were divided into three groups including SI injection group,rMSCs transplantation group and normal control group, each with 40 rats. The retinal degeneration was induced by caudal vein injection of SI. The retinal pigment epithelium（RPE）and neural retinal were evaluated by ocular fundus photograph, fluorescein fundus angiography (FFA)，electroretinogram (ERG) and histological approach, and TUNEL（terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferasemediated dUTP nick end labeling ）. CMDiIprelabeled primary rMSCs were transplanted into the subretinal space of SIinduced rats. The survival, integration, and differentiation of rMSCs were observed between 14 day to 60 day after the transplantation.Results The rat retinal function was gradually reduced after14 days of SI injection, with a timedependent manner. After the RPE cells were damaged，the outer segments of photoreceptors became disrupted and shortened until karyopyknosis. The nuclear morphology and positive TUNEL labeling indicated that the death of photoreceptor cells was apoptosis. After rMSCs transplantation, CMDiI labeled donor cells were observed to be scattered in the subretinal space and expressed RPE cell markers. Average amplitude of b wave and Ops (oscillation potential) in ERG improved 27.80%,59.38% respectively after rMSCs transplantation.Conclusions Transplanted rMSCs can survive in subretinal space and differentiate into RPE.
Objective To investigate the characteristics of indocyanine green angiography(ICGA) in central serous chorioretinopathy(CSC) Methods The simultanous fundus fluorescein angiography(FFA) and ICGA were performed on 79 eyes of 70 consecutive patients with Heidelberg Retina Angiography. Results Seventy-nine eyes in FFA revealed RPE leakages.The changes of ICGA showed a small localized delay of filling of choroid vessels during the early phase of angiography in 23 eyes,choroidal capillary congestion in 79 eyes,the choriodal capillary hyperpermeability in the area of RPE leakage in 78 eyes,pigment epithelial detachment in 25 eyes and RPE atrophy in 21 eyes． Conclusion The findings in this research indicate that the choroidal abnormalities are the basic characteristics of ICGA in CSC. (Chin J Ocul Fundus Dis,20000,16:14-16)
Objective To investigate the characteristics of congenital retinoschisis of optical coherence tomography(OCT) and its clinical application. Methods Eight cases(15 eyes) which were diagnosed as or suspected to retinoschisis in clinic were examined by OCT,direct ophthalmoscopy and color fundus photograph.Three cases(6 eyes) were examined by electroretinogram(ERG) and fundus fluorescein angiography(FFA). Results The typical characteristic OCT images of congenital retinoschisis were cystic maculopathy with tilted and vertical connective filaments,typical split in innner retinal layers in posterior retina and thickening of neurosensory retina with the split of outer retinal layers in membranous remnants. Conclusions OCT can display the characteristics of congenital retinoschisis．It is potentially useful as a new technique for the diagnosis of congenital retinoschisis. (Chin J Ocul Fundus Dis, 1999, 15: 209-211)