Optical Coherence Tomographic Artifacts in Diseases of the Retinal Pigment Epithelium
- Emely Z Karam (eka{at}cantv.net),
- Ernesto Ramirez,
- Paula L Arreaza,
- Julian Morales-Stopello
- Unidad Oftalmológica de Caracas. Centro Médico Docente La Trinidad, Venezuela
- Centro Médico Docente La Trinidad, Venezuela
- Unidad Oftalmológica de Caracas. Centro Médico Docente La Trinidad, Venezuela
- Centro Médico Docente La Trinidad, Venezuela
- Published Online First 3 April 2007
Abstract
Aims: To show OCT artifacts in images from patients with retinal pigment epithelium detachment and retinal laser scars when OCT protocol analyses were applied.
Methods: All OCT retinal scans using OCT-3000 (software 4.02) were review over a three months period. Thirteen eyes of eleven patients were selected for this study. Ten eyes had retinal pigment epithelial detachments and three had retinal laser scars. All patients had ophthalmic examination, fluorescein angiography, (one had indocyanine green angiography) as well as OCT. All OCT processing and analysis protocols were applied in each case.
Results: Ten eyes of eight patients with retinal pigment epithelial detachments showed flattening of the retinal pigment epithelium and apparent inversion of the dome of the detachment when scan protocol analyses were applied. Three eyes with retinal laser scars displayed thinning of the retinal pigment epithelium without changes behind the scar. The retinal tissues around the lesions did not show any alteration.
Conclusions: OCT scan analysis is an excellent method to obtain specific information about the retina. However, some lesions that cause disruption of external reflectivity (retinal pigment epithelium) can cause software related artifacts when analysis protocols are applied. In order to prevent diagnostic error, re- evaluation of the clinical fundus examination should be considered in any patient in whom OCT findings do not appear consistent with the initial clinical findings.
