A single expanded-field swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCT-A) scan can detect signs of diabetic retinopathy (DR) as accurately as traditional ultra-widefield color fundus photography, according to findings presented at this year\u2019s American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) annual meeting.<\/p>\n
Diabetic retinopathy<\/a> remains a leading cause of vision impairment and blindness worldwide, with its burden continuing to grow in proportion to the global diabetic population. Screening has traditionally relied on color fundus photography, which helps visualize the retinal surface; however, this modality does not directly resolve fine microvascular changes<\/a>, which include microaneurysms, areas of nonperfusion, and intraretinal microvascular abnormalities \u2014 all of which contribute to disease staging.<\/p>\n With SS-OCT-A, ophthalmologists can noninvasively map the retinal vasculature in fine detail. Notably, newer expanded-field protocols can extend the view well beyond the posterior pole and into the periphery.\u00a0<\/p>\n The investigators tested whether a single 12\u00d712-mm angiogram could serve as a primary diabetic retinopathy screening tool, capturing enough of the peripheral retina to rival the broad coverage of ultra-widefield photography.<\/p>\n 12\u00d712-mm OCT-A shows equivalent diagnostic accuracy for DR compared to UWF CFP.<\/p>\n The retrospective, cross-sectional study reviewed eyes diagnosed with varying stages of diabetic retinopathy that underwent both same-day ultra-widefield color fundus photography (UWF CFP) and 12\u00d712 mm SS-OCT-A.\u00a0<\/p>\n On SS-OCT-A scans, diabetic retinopathy was defined by the presence of microaneurysms or non-perfusion areas, read from en face angiograms and B-scans.\u00a0<\/p>\n Verified diagnoses were based on the Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Scale, which classically utilizes 7 fields superimposed on the UWF CFP images. Two masked graders read every image, with a third resolving any discrepancies.<\/p>\n The analysis included 141 eyes of 109 patients, all diagnosed with DR. By the 7-field UWF CFP standard, 67 eyes (47.5%) had DR; the 12\u00d712 mm OCT-A independently flagged 65 eyes (46.1%). Measured against clinician-verified diagnoses, SS-OCT-A scans achieved a sensitivity of 93.8% (95% CI, 85.0-98.3%) and a specificity of 92.1% (95% CI, 83.6-97.0%), with an area under the ROC curve of 0.93 (95% CI, 0.89-0.97).<\/p>\n These results and statistical figures place a single expanded-field OCT-A scan on near-equal footing with ultra-widefield photography, the current standard.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c12\u00d712 mm OCT-A shows equivalent diagnostic accuracy for DR compared to UWF CFP,\u201d according to the investigators, who cited its high sensitivity and specificity and an AUC approaching 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n Practicality plays an important role as well. A single dye-free scan that both detects disease and resolves the microvasculature driving it could potentially streamline screening while simultaneously adding structural detail that photography cannot provide.\u00a0<\/p>\n Larger, prospective cohorts spanning the full range of DR severity will be needed to confirm the approach, but such early results suggest expanded-field SS-OCT-A holds significant promise as a first-line screening tool, the researchers report.<\/p>\n Disclosure: Multiple study authors declared affiliations with the biotech, pharmaceutical, and\/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of authors\u2019 disclosures.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A single expanded-field swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCT-A) scan can detect signs of diabetic retinopathy (DR) as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,96722,84,286517,262790,90046,131952],"class_list":["post-817091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-diabetic-retinopathy","tag-health","tag-optical-coherence-tomography","tag-retina-vitreous","tag-retinopathy","tag-systemic-ophthalmology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}