Imaging in uveitis: techniques and indications

Abstract

SummaryUveitis has become a precise clinical science, in part thanks to the development of performing imaging methods. Laser flare photometry (LFP), although not an imaging method ‘stricto sensu’, measures back‐scattered photons from the anterior chamber produced by a laser beam and so establishes the exact level of intraocular inflammation at any time and allows precise monitoring of uveitis. Fluorescein angiography (FA) has been used for more than 50 years and gives indications on inflammation of superficial structures of the fundus, optic disc and the retinal pigment epithelium. Indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) became available in the early 1990 ties and is essential in the precise investigation of the inflammatory, otherwise occult reaction in the choroidal compartment, giving panfundal information that is otherwise not available. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) analyses both the retina and choroid (in the enhanced depth mode – EDI) of the posterior pole. Ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) is useful to analyse inflammation in the retroiridal space. Other imaging methods such as fundus autofluorescence (FAF) or Angio‐OCT are still being evaluated for their utility in uveitis.