title: Noninvasive evaluation of retinal leakage using optical coherence tomography.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To demonstrate the association between changes in the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) identified by fluorescein leakage and those in the optical properties of the human retina determined by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and show how these changes can be quantified and their location identified within the retina.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two imaging techniques were applied: the retinal leakage analyzer, to map BRB function into intact or disrupted regions, and OCT, to measure refractive index changes along the light path within the human ocular fundus.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 140 comparisons were made, 77 between areas of regions receiving the same classification (intact or disrupted BRB) and 63 between areas of regions receiving distinct classifications, from 4 pathological cases: 2 eyes with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy and 2 eyes with wet age-related macular degeneration. In all cases, the distribution of OCT data between regions of intact and regions of disrupted BRB, identified by the retinal leakage analyzer, was quantified and was statistically significantly different (p < 0.001). In addition, it was found that the differences could be localized in the retina to specific structural sequences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Using a novel method to analyze OCT data, we showed that it may be possible to quantify differences in the extracellular compartment in eyes with retinal disease and alterations of the BRB. Based on quantitative techniques, our findings demonstrate the presence of indirect information on the BRB status within noninvasive OCT data.
authors.affiliation: Center of New Technologies for Medicine, Association for Innovation and Biomedical Research on Light and Image (AIBILI), Coimbra, Portugal. rcb@aibilli.pt
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bernardes
authors.forename: Torcato
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Serranho
authors.forename: Conceição
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lobo
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cunha-Vaz
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001813:Blood-Retinal Barrier; D002199:Capillary Permeability; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D005451:Fluorescein Angiography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012171:Retinal Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D057135:Wet Macular Degeneration / Q000175:diagnosis*