FLIO Imaging Can Foretell Functional Recovery After Retinal Detachment Repair

Fluorescence lifetime imaging ophthalmoscopy (FLIO) can help clinicians predict long-term functional outcomes of macula-off rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) surgery, according to a study published in Retina.

The investigators reviewed the utility of FLIO in patients following successful pseudophakic macula-off RRD reattachment surgery. 

The team used retinal autofluorescence at 470 nm and measured amplitude-weighted mean fluorescence lifetimes (Tm) in a short spectral channel (SSC, 498–560 nm) and a long spectral channel (LSC, 560–720 nm). They obtained Tm within a standardized Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study grid and evaluated correlations. Patients’ unaffected fellow eyes served as controls.

A total of 58 patients (age, 65±1.6 years; 81.1% men, 18.9% women) were included in the study, and they were evaluated at a median of 1.5 months postoperatively. 

The investigators found that Tm were significantly prolonged within areas of previously detached retina in the long spectral channel (mean, 261.5 picoseconds [ps] in control eye at baseline vs 294.1 in affected eye at 6 months) and in the central subfield in the short spectral channel (mean, 209.6 ps in control eye at baseline vs 230 ps in affected eye at 6 months). 

They also demonstrated that short lifetimes in the center of the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study grid correlated with better visual acuity (short spectral channel: r²=0.18; P =.001;  long spectral channel: r²=0.08; P =.03). 

“Shorter foveal lifetimes at 1 month were significantly associated with a good visual prognosis in the following up to 6 months after RRD repair,” the researchers report. “Therefore, an increased area of short fluorescence lifetimes in the macular region after surgery may have prognostic value. In addition, over the 6 months follow up, we observed that the macular fluorescence lifetimes gradually recover following successful RRD repair in some cases.”  

The primary limitation of the study was the small sample size.