A research study exploring the feasibility of the use of OCT angiography (OCTA) in clinical practice has been undertaken by a group of ophthalmologists.
Named Octane (OCT Angiography Network), the group is made up of staff from Moorfields, York, Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester and Bradford Hospitals. All six centres will use the Heidelberg Engineering Spectralis OCT angiography module.
The study has two phases. The first will attempt to identify how practical and repeatable the OCTA examination is in busy clinics. The second phase will focus on clinical investigation of specific disease groups using OCTA, including neovascular AMD, diabetic macular oedema, central serous chorioretinopathy and pachychoroid spectrum.
The group will look at what useful OCT biomarkers there are for each disease, how reliably they can be detected and the limitations of the technology.
‘Being an embryonic technology, many OCTA studies to date are limited by the relatively small data sets that have been acquired for analysis,’ said Christopher Mody, Heidelberg Engineering director of clinical services.
‘With six university hospitals collaborating, the Octane group has a unique opportunity to recruit and gather large patient cohorts which will provide more statistical power to their studies.’