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Visibility of microvessels in Optical Coherence Tomography angiography depends on angular orientation
Author(s) -
Zhu Jun,
Bernucci Marcel T.,
Merkle Conrad W.,
Srinivasan Vivek J.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of biophotonics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.877
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1864-0648
pISSN - 1864-063X
DOI - 10.1002/jbio.202000090
Subject(s) - optical coherence tomography angiography , optical coherence tomography , artifact (error) , orientation (vector space) , tomography , optics , angiography , biomedical engineering , visualization , tracer , microcirculation , contrast (vision) , materials science , medicine , physics , radiology , computer science , artificial intelligence , mathematics , nuclear physics , geometry
Optical Coherence Tomography angiography (OCTA) is a widespread tool for depth‐resolved imaging of chorioretinal vasculature with single microvessel resolution. To improve the clinical interpretation of OCTA, the conditions affecting visualization of microvessels must be defined. Here we inject a scattering plasma tracer (Intralipid) during OCTA imaging of the anesthetized rat eye. In the retina, we find that interlaminar (vertical) vessels that connect laminae have one‐fourth to one‐third the OCTA red blood cell to tracer (RBC‐to‐tracer) signal ratio of intralaminar (horizontal) vessels. This finding suggests that the OCTA signal from microvessels depends on angular orientation, making vertically‐oriented vessels more difficult to visualize using intrinsic contrast alone. Clinicians should be aware of this potential artifact when interpreting OCTA.