"What's that?" Number 4

Optical Coherance Tomography (OCT) - a 3D scan of the eye (short answer)...or...(long answer) this incredibly clever bit of kit provides a non-invasive way to scan the eye using a scanning laser (and receiver to read the reflections) which can create a 3D model showing all the structures of the eye including layers of the retina. OCT uses a laser, the same way as sonor uses sound. The computer can then compare this data to age, sex, and race matched normals and indicate any abnormalities. It is extremely useful in the diagnosis and monitoring of eye disease such as Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Glaucoma amongst many others. The second image shows a healthy macula in both a 3D and 2D "slice". The third image shows 2x2D "slice" scans, both of the same patient. This patient was referred to see me from another practice with Cystoid Macula Oedema (CMO). CMO can occur after cataract surgery, when the central area of the retina, the macula, becomes swollen and waterlogged. The top half of the image shows the swollen macula pre-treatment and the lower half shows the macula 2 weeks after starting treatment. Normally within 6 weeks of starting treatment, the macula settles and vision improves. Link here to the full Facebook post.