Application of ultrawide-field ss-OCTA in the precise diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy

Purpose: To study the imaging findings of ultrawide-field swept source optical coherence tomography angiography (ss-OCTA) and its advantages with respect to ultrawide-field fundus photography (FP) in the precise diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy (DR), and to reveal its applications in DR. Methods: The imaging findings of microangiopathy in ultrawide-field ss-OCTA and ultrawide-field FP from DR patients were retrospectively analyzed, and the differences between the two methods were assessed. In addition, the grade of DR based on the imaging findings of the two modalities was determined and compared. Results: Ultra-widefield ss-OCTA clearly revealed various occult retinal microvascular lesions in DR patients over a detection range which was similar to ultrawide-field FP. Significantly more retinal microangiopathy were detected and more eyes were given a worse DR grade with ultrawide-field ss-OCTA than those with ultrawide-field FP. Conclusion: Ultrawide-field ss-OCTA is more able to detect retinal microangiopathy compared with ultrawide-field FP and is contributive in the precise diagnosis of DR. Ultrawide-field ss-OCTA has substantial applicability in the precise diagnosis of DR, especially when ultrawide-field fundus fluorescence angiography (FFA) is unavailable.