Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography for Imaging and Analysis of the Choriocapillaris in Late Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a progressive disease of the retina and choroid, is a leading cause of vision loss. At present, AMD pathogenesis remains incompletely understood, and approved treatments only exist for certain AMD subtypes. In this thesis, we investigate AMD pathophysiology wi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Moult, Eric Michael
Other Authors: Fujimoto, James G.
Format: Thesis
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2022
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/140092
_version_ 1811090683433320448
author Moult, Eric Michael
author2 Fujimoto, James G.
author_facet Fujimoto, James G.
Moult, Eric Michael
author_sort Moult, Eric Michael
collection MIT
description Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a progressive disease of the retina and choroid, is a leading cause of vision loss. At present, AMD pathogenesis remains incompletely understood, and approved treatments only exist for certain AMD subtypes. In this thesis, we investigate AMD pathophysiology with a focus on choriocapillaris impairment in macular neovascularization and geographic atrophy, the two subtypes comprising late AMD. The choriocapillaris, the capillary layer of the choroid, is responsible for nourishing the outer retina, including the photoreceptors, and has long been hypothesized to have an important role in AMD development and progression. We contribute to the existing understanding of AMD-associated choriocapillaris impairment by developing and applying optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) technology in conjunction with image analysis and disease modeling approaches. Key study results presented in this thesis include: (1) the development of an OCTA-based method for microvascular velocimetry that is compatible with clinical ophthalmic imaging; (2) the demonstration and quantification of choriocapillaris impairment surrounding macular neovascularization; (3) the association of macular neovascularization blood flow speeds with responses to vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor treatment; (4) the demonstration of choriocapillaris impairment surrounding regions of geographic atrophy; and, (5) the development of a biophysical model describing the spatiotemporal expansion of geographic atrophy, and the integration of this model with spatial statistical methods to enable rigorous assessments of local correlations between choriocapillaris impairment and geographic atrophy growth.
first_indexed 2024-09-23T14:50:13Z
format Thesis
id mit-1721.1/140092
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
last_indexed 2024-09-23T14:50:13Z
publishDate 2022
publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/1400922022-02-08T03:17:11Z Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography for Imaging and Analysis of the Choriocapillaris in Late Age-Related Macular Degeneration Moult, Eric Michael Fujimoto, James G. Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a progressive disease of the retina and choroid, is a leading cause of vision loss. At present, AMD pathogenesis remains incompletely understood, and approved treatments only exist for certain AMD subtypes. In this thesis, we investigate AMD pathophysiology with a focus on choriocapillaris impairment in macular neovascularization and geographic atrophy, the two subtypes comprising late AMD. The choriocapillaris, the capillary layer of the choroid, is responsible for nourishing the outer retina, including the photoreceptors, and has long been hypothesized to have an important role in AMD development and progression. We contribute to the existing understanding of AMD-associated choriocapillaris impairment by developing and applying optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) technology in conjunction with image analysis and disease modeling approaches. Key study results presented in this thesis include: (1) the development of an OCTA-based method for microvascular velocimetry that is compatible with clinical ophthalmic imaging; (2) the demonstration and quantification of choriocapillaris impairment surrounding macular neovascularization; (3) the association of macular neovascularization blood flow speeds with responses to vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor treatment; (4) the demonstration of choriocapillaris impairment surrounding regions of geographic atrophy; and, (5) the development of a biophysical model describing the spatiotemporal expansion of geographic atrophy, and the integration of this model with spatial statistical methods to enable rigorous assessments of local correlations between choriocapillaris impairment and geographic atrophy growth. Ph.D. 2022-02-07T15:23:37Z 2022-02-07T15:23:37Z 2021-09 2021-09-21T18:34:33.454Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/140092 0000-0003-3859-3094 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright MIT http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Moult, Eric Michael
Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography for Imaging and Analysis of the Choriocapillaris in Late Age-Related Macular Degeneration
title Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography for Imaging and Analysis of the Choriocapillaris in Late Age-Related Macular Degeneration
title_full Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography for Imaging and Analysis of the Choriocapillaris in Late Age-Related Macular Degeneration
title_fullStr Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography for Imaging and Analysis of the Choriocapillaris in Late Age-Related Macular Degeneration
title_full_unstemmed Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography for Imaging and Analysis of the Choriocapillaris in Late Age-Related Macular Degeneration
title_short Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography for Imaging and Analysis of the Choriocapillaris in Late Age-Related Macular Degeneration
title_sort optical coherence tomography angiography for imaging and analysis of the choriocapillaris in late age related macular degeneration
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/140092
work_keys_str_mv AT moultericmichael opticalcoherencetomographyangiographyforimagingandanalysisofthechoriocapillarisinlateagerelatedmaculardegeneration