Nailfold capillaroscopy with commercially-available optical coherence tomography angiography for ophthalmic use

Session Details

Session Title: Presented Poster Session: New & Interesting II

Venue: Poster Village: Pod 3

First Author: : S.Shahipasand UK

Co Author(s): :    J. Mohammed-Noriega   D. Sim   C. Gizzi   K. Kortum              

Abstract Details

Purpose:

Microcirculations are important for systemic and ophthalmic diseases, in the retina has been studied with Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) while in the nailfold is traditionally analysed for rheumatological diseases with capillaroscopy. However, there is growing evidence about the relationship between nailfold capillaroscopy abnormalities and ophthalmic diseases such as glaucoma and exfoliation syndrome. We propose a commercially available OCTA for ophthalmology as an instrument to identify morphological characteristics typically assessed during conventional capillaroscopy. This would reduce the difficulties of acquiring images from highly pigmented skin, the need of new equipment and a skilled operator to perform and interpret the test.

Setting:

Moorfields Eye Hospital, City Road, London.

Methods:

Our cross-sectional observational study involved ten healthy volunteers (6men, 4 women, mean age 28.2 +/- 6.29) with no previous history of ophthalmic or rheumatic disease. OCTA scans were obtained from the nailfolds of the fourth digit of the non-dominant hand. 3-dimensional reconstructions were created to enable easy identification of vessels and surrounding anatomical structures.

Results:

Nailfold capillaries were successfully detectable in 100% of OCTA scans. We constructed a vessel density map and automatically measured vessel density and flow area per individual scan. OCTA had faster scanning times , was independent of skilled operators, remained unaffected by darker skin shades and allowed for appreciation of depth of the vessels.

Conclusions:

We describe a proof-of-concept study of a commercially available OCTA ophthalmic system, potentially useful as a non-invasive, rapid imaging modality for evaluation of nailfold microcirculation.

Financial Disclosure:

None