Differential optical density of subretinal spaces.

We investigated the optical density characteristics of 3subretinal spaces in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD), central serous retinopathy (CSR), retinoschisis (RS), and pseudophakic cystoids macular edema (PCME). Patients in whom subretinal fluid (SRF) was detected by optical coherence tomography (OCT), and whose earliest OCT scans showed sufficient SRF for sampling that did not include tissue edges, were chosen for study. The highest quality B-scan containing SRF (as graded by the OCT image acquisition software) was analyzed. Optical density measurements were obtained using ImageJ, an open code Java-based image processing software. The diagnoses of the 71 patients who met the inclusion criteria were AMD in 17, DR in 7, RRD in 18, CSR in 17, RS in 8, and PCME in 4. Optical density ratios (ODRs) were calculated as SRF OD divided by vitreous OD. ODRs were significantly higher in patients with AMD, DR, CSR, and PCME than in those with RRD and RS. No significant difference in vitreous reflectivity was detected between the former and latter patients. The finding that disease states produce significant changes in optical density ratios calls for further investigation of the possible usefulness of the parameter in differentiating between disease states, determining the outcome of various retinal diseases, and designing therapies aimed at treating the disease by correcting the abnormal density.