RESUMO
Comparison of scanning laser ophthalmoscopy [SLO] based 'en face' imaging techniques of patients with epiretinal membranes [ERM] and evaluation of the accuracy of preoperative diagnostic imaging. A consecutive, prospective series of 53 study eyes of 46 patients with clinically diagnosed and in optical coherence tomography [OCT] confirmed symptomatic ERMs were included in this study. Spectral domain [SD-] OCT volume scans [20°×20° with 49 horizontal sections, ART 15] including SLO en face and fundus autofluorescence [FAF] images of the macula were obtained with HRA2 [Heidelberg Retina Angiograph-Optical Coherence Tomography, Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany]. In addition, wide-field SLO color and FAF images [Optomap 200Tx, Optos PLC, Dunfermline, UK] were performed also covering the macular area. En face images of both devices were graded for each included study eye based on SD-OCT cross sectional scans. Grading of SD-OCT [HRA2] based SLO en face green-blue enhanced multi-color, green reflectance, blue reflectance and standard multi-color visualization revealed a better detectability of ERM than SD-OCT-based en face infrared or FAF images or wide-field SLO [Optomap] based pseudo-color, red laser separation, green laser separation, or FAF images. Both FAF visualizations, HRA2 and Optomap based, achieved low mean scores. SD-OCT based en face thickness map visualization revealed good visualization but poor demarcation of epiretinal membranes. In summary, en face regular or enhanced multicolor SLO images acquired with HRA2 allow a better visualization of epiretinal membranes for preoperative evaluation compared to SD-OCT based en face thickness map or pseudo-color images acquired with Optomap while infrared or FAF images are least suitable to depict epiretinal membranes