Anterior-segment optical coherence tomography angiography (AS-OCT-A) is entering clinical practice as “a promising way to assess anterior-segment blood vessels, especially in the cornea and limbus”, says Alberto Recchioni, Specialist Optometrist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. 

“It already produces detailed, depth-resolved images without the need for dye, and studies have shown that it can reveal vascular detail better than slit-lamp photography (Aschauer et al, 2024) and approach the diagnostic quality of dye-based angiography (Lee et al, 2024)”. 

Even so, the technology is still developing. “Its limitations, such as movement artefacts, segmentation errors and relatively narrow fields of view, mean that standardisation is still a work in progress,” says Alberto. “As faster hardware, improved imaging software and AI tools continue to evolve, AS-OCT-A is expected to become much more clinically robust.”