Principles of OCTA and Applications in Clinical Neurology

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The article reviews the recent findings on the use of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) in neurology. RECENT FINDINGS: OCTA is a new addition to the powerful and complementary technology of the OCT. Due to its noninvasiveness, and reproducibility, it is possible to obtain high-resolution 3D images of the vessels of the human eye. As the vessels of the retina with the presence of endothelial cell’s tight junctions resemble the brain vessels, it was hypothesized that the imaging of the retinal vessels might bring insight into brain vessels. OCTA has been effectively used to predict retinal vessel abnormalities in dementia, demyelization, optic disc neuropathies, and inherited degenerative diseases. Most common findings were decrease of vascular density and flow and an increase of avascular zones. SUMMARY: Although OCTA is a relative new technology, recent studies show that it can be successfully applied in neurology.