Retinal Findings on OCT in Systemic Conditions

Imaging technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the recent past and has resulted in a much greater understanding of ocular diseases. The aim of this review article is to summarize optical coherence tomography (OCT) findings of various systemic conditions.A systematic literature search of the Medline/PubMed database was performed. English articles up to April 2015 were included. Terms used for search included: Alzheimer's Disease; Multiple Sclerosis; Parkinson's Disease; Behçet's Disease; Schizophrenia; Migraine; Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome; Neurofibromatosis; Sickle Cell Disease; Renal diseases; Lupus Retinopathy; Valsalva Retinopathy; Whiplash Retinopathy; Shaken-Baby Syndrome; Choroidal metastases; Intracranial Hypertension; Drug toxicity; Deferoxamine; Sildenafil; Tamoxifen; Hydroxychloroquine; Chloroquine; Ethambutol; Lead; Sickle Cell Disease; and Thalassemia along with OCT.Studies have shown that inner retinal thinning could be the earliest sign of neurological diseases and may help to differentiate individuals with abnormalities. Outer retinal damage was noted in cancer-related retinopathy and secondary to drug toxicity as a diagnostic sign. This review article summarizes the OCT findings and their importance in early diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up in a varying spectrum of systemic diseases including neurological diseases, hematological diseases, cancer-related retinopathies, and systemic drug toxicity.OCT findings are useful to predict the probability of a disease, to diagnose it early, to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy tissue, and to assess the effect of therapeutic interventions in many systemic diseases.