Multimodal imaging including spectral-domain optical coherence tomography and confocal near-infrared reflectance for characterization of lacquer cracks in highly myopic eyes.

PURPOSE: To compare multimodal imaging in detecting lacquer cracks in highly myopic eyes, and to correlate these findings with those of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). METHODS: An observational case series study. Patients with a refractive error worse than -8 diopters and lacquer cracks were recruited. The rates of detection of the lacquer cracks using multimodal imaging including near-infrared reflectance (NIR) imaging, fundus autofluorescence (FAF) imaging, and fluorescence angiography (FA) were compared. The characteristic findings of multimodal imaging were correlated with those of SD-OCT. RESULTS: NIR imaging was more sensitive (92.9%) in detecting lacquer cracks than either FAF (12.5%) or FA (67.9%). Lacquer cracks showed hyperreflectance on NIR, and they were consistently associated with a continuous retinal pigment epithelium-Bruch's membrane complex, thinner choroid, and acoustic shadows on SD-OCT. CONCLUSIONS: NIR imaging is superior to blue laser light (FAF and FA) imaging in detecting lacquer cracks. SD-OCT in combination with NIR located primary pathological lacquer cracks in the intact retinal pigment epithelium-Bruch's membrane complex as well as thinner choroid. These findings indicate that multimodal cSLO and SD-OCT imaging allow for detecting of lacquer cracks in highly myopic eyes.