OCT and Fundus Autofluorescence Enhances Visualization of White Dot Syndromes.

PURPOSE: White dot syndromes (WDS) are a group of inflammatory conditions characterized by white lesions at the retina and choroid level. Detection and monitoring of these syndromes are currently hampered by the subtlety of these lesions, making them difficult to image using traditional clinical techniques. New imaging modalities such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) and fundus autofluorescence (FAF) offer new opportunities for clinicians to noninvasively image WDS.

METHODS: A literature search was performed using a variety of WDS as the search terms. All articles from January 2004 to May 2014 were analyzed for clinical information regarding imaging of the diseases using OCT or FAF.

RESULTS: Current descriptions of OCT and FAF imaging of WDS are fragmented across case reports and small-scale studies. Assessing clinical presentation of WDS using OCT and FAF, however, is useful as the retinal layers affected in these syndromes are well characterized by these technologies. Furthermore, the new information revealed by OCT and FAF is helpful to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of these diseases in combination with known clinical and angiographic findings.

CONCLUSIONS: This review collates current literature and provides a succinct overview of the clinical presentation of WDS using OCT and FAF.