The application of optical coherence tomography in uveitis patients

Uveitis is an inflammatory disease which involves the uvea, retina, retinal vessel and vitreous body. The disease mainly affects middle age and young people with a variety of clinical manifestations and is often recurrent. If not treated properly, it will cause visual impairment and even blindness. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) is a noninvasive examination which provides clear images quickly without contacting the eyes. As the development of OCT, we can obtain the sectional images with similar resolution as histological examination. Especially, when the enhanced depth image OCT (EDI-OCT) was used in clinical, the structures of choroid could also be detected. Therefore, OCT was used more and more in uveitis patients. Anterior segment OCT (AS-OCT) is used to evaluate the inflammation in anterior chamber. It also can provide the changes of iris and corneal structures during acute phase and recovery period. SD-OCT can clearly display many kinds of retinopathy in patients with uveitis including macular edema and the changes of retinal thickness. EDI-OCT can be used to observe the changes of retina and choroid at the same time. In particular, the measurement of choroidal thickness can be used to evaluate the choroidal changes and the degree of the response to treatment. Therefore, SD-OCT helps to diagnose uveitis and is easily used in the disease follow-up and treatment effect observation.