Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) activity in AMD is traditionally assessed with clinical parameters, fundus fluorescein angiogram and spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT). To explore other monitoring methods, a research team evaluated the ability of OCT-angiography (OCT-A) in detecting CNV progression.

The study included 152 eyes of 106 patients with AMD (59 eyes with wet AMD and 93 eyes with dry AMD and high-risk drusen). Patients were assessed for disease activity with the three traditional methods, as well as OCT-A. Compared with traditional methods, OCT-A had 85.4% specificity and 79.3% sensitivity in determining the presence or absence of CNV. OCT-A had a 69.5% accuracy in determining active CNV and resulted in false positives and negatives 21.6% and 8% of the time, respectively.

The authors concluded that en-face OCT-A images provide only a moderate ability in identifying CNV. “OCT-A alone is weak at recognizing active CNV requiring treatment in AMD,” they stated.