Multicolor imaging may be best for characterizing geographic atrophy

When compared to fundus autofluorescence (FAF) and infrared (IR) imaging, multicolor (MC) imaging performed significantly higher at foveal sparing assessment, particularly in the setting of foveal incomplete retinal pigmented and outer retinal atrophy (iRORA), according to a study.

Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) images of 70 participants were used to evaluate atrophy by 2 graders and to determine ground truth. The accuracy of detection of foveal sparing was evaluated through comparison with B-scan images ground truth, with/without the inclusion of patients with foveal iRORA.

In addition to foveal sparing, the subjective visibility of atrophy margins was significantly higher rated on MC images.

“Moreover, performing the analysis of foveal sparing visualization after the exclusion of patients with foveal iRORA led to a reduction in accuracy spread between the techniques, suggesting that MC might be particularly proficient in identifying areas that are not completely involved by the atrophic process and thus corresponding to iRORA (higher specificity),” the authors concluded.

Reference
Crincoli E, De Rosa I, Miere A, et al. Comparison of Multimodal Imaging for the Characterization of Geographic Atrophy. Transl Vis Sci Technol. 2022;11(11):21. doi: 10.1167/tvst.11.11.21. PMID: 36445699; PMCID: PMC9716236.