Ultrahigh-resolution versus speckle noise-reduction in spectral-domain optical coherence tomography

Ultrahigh-resolution (UHR) spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and speckle noise-reduced SD-OCT instruments were compared with regard to their ability to visualize retinal microstructures and detect micropathologies in the same series of eyes in this hospital-based study. Both the instruments identically visualized normal retinal structures, except for the retinal ganglion cell layer, which was better delineated by the speckle noise-reduced SD-OCT instrument. Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and Bruch's membrane were better delineated by UHR SD-OCT. Retinal and sub-RPE pathologies were also identically visualized by both the instruments. Layer differentiation for locating each pathology was better visualized by speckle noise-reduced SD-OCT. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America