A Comprehensive Review of Retinal Vascular and Optical Nerve Diseases Based on Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography

Abstract

The optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a noninvasive imaging technology which aims at imaging blood vessels in retina by studying decorrelation signals between multiple sequential OCT B-scans captured in the same cross section. Obtaining various vascular plexuses including deep and superficial choriocapillaris, is possible, which helps in understanding the ischemic processes that affect different retina layers. OCTA is a safe imaging modality that does not use dye. OCTA is also fast as it can capture high-resolution images in just seconds. Additionally, it is used in the assessment of structure and blood flow. OCTA provides anatomic details in addition to the vascular flow data. These details are important in understanding the tissue perfusion, specifically, in the absence of apparent morphological change. Using these anatomical details along with perfusion data, OCTA could be used in predicting several ophthalmic diseases. In this paper, we review the OCTA techniques and their ability to detect and diagnose several retinal vascular and optical nerve diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy (DR), anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION), age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, retinal artery occlusion and retinal vein occlusion. Then, we discuss the main features and disadvantages of using OCTA as a retinal imaging method.