Objective To observe the characteristics of the images of optical coherence tomography (OCT) performed on the patients with macular edema, and investigate relationship between the retinal thickness at the central fovea and the best corrected visual acuity. Methods Fourty-seven patients (54 eyes) with macular edema diagnosed by direct and indirect ophthalmoscopy, three mirror contactlens, or fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) underwent OCT which was also performed on 50 healthy individuals as the control. The examination focused on the horizontal and vertical planes crossing the central fovea to measure the thickness of the fovea. The correlation between retinal thickness at the central fovea and best-corrected visual acuity was analyzed, and the images of OCT in the patients with macular edema were classified according to the macular configuration. Results Significant difference of the macular configuration and best-corrected visual acuity was found between the control and macular edema group. Three characteristics were found in the images of OCT in the patients with macular edema: sponge-like retinal swelling in 20 eyes (37.1%), macular cystoid edema in 26 eyes (48.1%), and serous retinal detachment in 8 eyes (14.8%). The statistical analysis showed that there was a negative correlation between the thickness at the central fovea and best-corrected visual acuity of affected eyes (r=-0.569, P=0.000). Conclusions The images of OCT in macular edema include 3 types: sponge-like retinal swelling, macular cystoid edema, and serous retinal detachment. The retinal thickness at the central fovea of the eyes with macular edema was thicker than that of the normal ones, and the thicker the fovea is, the poorer the visual acuity will be. (Chin J Ocul Fundus Dis，2004，20：152-155)

Citation： XIE Juan,CHENG Xiaoli,LI Xiling. Optical coherence tomography in macular edema. Chinese Journal of Ocular Fundus Diseases, 2004, 20(3): 152-155. doi: Copy