MyVisionTest News Archive
Jan 23, 2010
Is fluorescein angiography still needed for laser photocoagulation?
High-definition optical coherence tomography (HD-OCT) can replace routine fluorescein angiography (FA) in patients undergoing laser photocoagulation for macular edema, according to a recent journal article.
Macular laser photocoagulation is still the gold standard therapy for macular edema due to retinal vascular pathologies. Its main goal is to solve the leakage arising from macular vessels by photocoagulating photoreceptors. Fluorescein angiography has traditionally been used in planning and carrying out laser treatment of the macula. This procedure takes from 10 to 15 minutes to develop, and requires good cooperation from the patient being examined. FA is an important diagnostic tool in ophthalmology. Intravenus administration of sodium fluorescein, however, can result in numerous adverse reactions such as nausea and vomiting in up to 10% of examinations, pulmonary edema, myocardial infarction or anaphylactic shock.
The objective of FA is to localize the leaking areas within the macular area in order to apply laser spots exactly over them. But we can obtain a retinal thickness map with HD-OCT that objectifies the thickened areas within the territory of the macular, which are the result of the accumulation of retinal fluid coming out of those leaking areas. Thus, making use of HD-OCT we have an indirect method for obtaining the same topographical information that could be obtained with FA, and we would be able to precisely direct the laser spots.
Nowadays, we can analyze the retinal surface with the new spectral domain optical coherence tomographs, which allow the ophthalmologist to obtain color-coded retinal thickness map equivalent to the images obtained with FA. In comarison to FA, these are safer and quicker imaging techniques. In the authors opinion, there is no reason to make use of FA any more in patient undergoing laser photocoagulation for macular edema.
Read more...
Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2010 Jan 5. [Epub ahead of print]
Tags: macular edema, laser photocoagulation, fluorescein angiography, OCT
High-definition optical coherence tomography (HD-OCT) can replace routine fluorescein angiography (FA) in patients undergoing laser photocoagulation for macular edema, according to a recent journal article.Macular laser photocoagulation is still the gold standard therapy for macular edema due to retinal vascular pathologies. Its main goal is to solve the leakage arising from macular vessels by photocoagulating photoreceptors. Fluorescein angiography has traditionally been used in planning and carrying out laser treatment of the macula. This procedure takes from 10 to 15 minutes to develop, and requires good cooperation from the patient being examined. FA is an important diagnostic tool in ophthalmology. Intravenus administration of sodium fluorescein, however, can result in numerous adverse reactions such as nausea and vomiting in up to 10% of examinations, pulmonary edema, myocardial infarction or anaphylactic shock.
Nowadays, we can analyze the retinal surface with the new spectral domain optical coherence tomographs, which allow the ophthalmologist to obtain color-coded retinal thickness map equivalent to the images obtained with FA. In comarison to FA, these are safer and quicker imaging techniques. In the authors opinion, there is no reason to make use of FA any more in patient undergoing laser photocoagulation for macular edema.
Read more...
Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2010 Jan 5. [Epub ahead of print]
