New imaging modalities give insight into deeper eye structures

New anatomic characteristics of peripapillary intrachoroidal cavitation have been identified using optical coherence tomography (OCT), according to a paper in Retina.

Dr Richard Spaide and his team, Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, New York, USA, included 16 eyes of 13 patients in the study. Swept-source OCT was used to image consecutive eyes with peripapillary intrachoroidal cavitation. One eye was subjected to a 1 mm light source whilst the other eye was administered enhanced depth imaging SD-OCT and 3D rendering.

The mean spherical refraction of the patients was -12.5 D in the affected eyes. The lesions appeared as yellow-orange in the lobular region and were invariably tilted. In four eyes full thickness defects in the retina were discovered at the inferior border of the conus. These were linked to prominent cavitation within the choroid with marked posterior bowing of the sclera.

Posterior deformation of the sclera, in regions were previously thinned by ocular expansion, was caused by high myopia.