Diabetic Macular Edema - Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)

In diabetic macular edema the capillaries of the retina leak the plasma contained within the vessel out into the extravascular tissue space. The swelling of the retina can best be seen with a type of imaging called optical coherence tomography (OCT). In the case shown here, the picture to the top left shows the macula with some laser scars (yellow arrow) around the center. The green arrow shows the OCT scan orientation. The OCT scan is on the top right. It shows the macula in cross section. The orange arrow points to a cyst of fluid within the macula. The line drawing at the bottom gives the profile of the retina as determined by the computer algorithm contained within the OCT machine applied to the OCT scan.