OCT in uveitis

Purpose To describe the role of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in uveitis.Methods The current literature is reviewed and the experience of a tertiary referral centre is reported.Results The involvement of the posterior pole during an active eye inflammatory disease can entail a reduction of visual acuity, which is sometimes difficult to treat. Albeit fluorescein angiography (FA) is still the gold standard for the detection of blood-retinal barrier (BRB) disruption and has been the best option for the diagnosis of cystoid macular oedema (CMO), OCT represents an essential tool that can ameliorate the interpretation of FA findings. Epiretinal membrane (ERM) and tractional maculopathy may represent a sight-threatening sequela of uveitis. OCT is extremely useful in documenting pathologies at the vitreo-retinal interface, such as the formation of ERM, as well as it is also helpful in proving early infiltrates at the posterior vitreous interface. Although FA still remains the gold standard for the choroidal neovascularization (CNV) assessment, OCT is very helpful in documenting CNV nearby a chorioretinal scar. OCT has been used to study the type of CNV and to find its correlation to RPE.Conclusion OCT may demonstrate a variety of morphological changes, that may point towards a specific uveitic disease: different forms of macular oedema may be described in uveitis as well as OCT features which can be peculiarly found in several diseases. In addition, OCT can be very useful in documenting both ERM and CNV.