OCTA of the eye: A review of basic principles, pros and cons, and specifications
What is it about?
In this review paper, we are going to describe the basic principles of OCT and OCTA, their advantages and disadvantages, and the basic hardware and software specifications of some of the commercially available OCTA devices. This is done in the most straightforward possible language to help health professionals without deep knowledge of optoelectronics
Why is it important?
OCT was the fastest-adopted imaging technique in the history of ophthalmology and in 2010 the number of ophthalmic OCT scans was comparable to the number of MRI, SPECT, PET, and CT examinations. One relatively novel OCT imaging application is OCT angiography (OCTA), which was commercially introduced in 2014. OCTA utilizes the blood movement within the vasculature in order to construct an angiogram of the retina and the choroid. However, there are essential limitations and especially in absolute blood flow quantification. A detailed description of the pros and cons and specifications are presented in this work.