Progressive change of optical coherence tomography scans in retinal degeneration slow mice

Abstract

Objective: To study whether optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans correlate retinal histologic findings with the progression of retinal degeneration in retinal degeneration slow (rds) mice. Methods: Sensory retinal thickness (SRT) and outer retinal thickness (ORT), representing photoreceptor cell layer, in temporal retina at a distance 1 to 2 disc diameters from the optic disc were measured using scan profile in OCT from 6 healthy mice (16 weeks old) and 2-week-old (n=6), 6-week-old (n=4), and 60-week-old (n=2) rds mice. Histologic sections were obtained from Epon-embedded retinas from the corresponding location. Results: Cross-sectional OCT images correlated to the corresponding histologic sections in each mouse. Both SRT and ORT of 2-week-old rds mice (150±4 μm and 28±4 μm, respectively) lacking photoreceptor outer segments were already shorter than those of healthy mice (174±5 μm and 37±6 μm, respectively) (P