ON THE FRONT LINES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST RETINAL DISEASE
D.M. DEUPREE, MD
Clearwater's Macula Center uses
the latest high-tech eye imaging
devices to combat retinal disease.
Board-certified ophthalmologists and retinal specialists, D.M. Deupree, MD,
FACS, and Michael Tolentino, MD, recently acquired two Cirrus Optical
Coherence Angiography retinal imaging devices to better serve their
vitreo-retinal patients at their Clearwater practice, The Macula Center.
RETINAL TESTING THEN AND NOW
OCTA is a new, safe and non-invasive
retinal imaging technique that
generates retinal angiography images
in a matter of seconds.
The new diagnostic
devices will also be
used in the busy
practice’s recently
opened Blue Ocean
Clinical Research
Center, a state-ofthe
art initiative
OCTA is more
comfortable, safer,
and easier than
dye-based testing.
that will focus on
ground-breaking research for the
development of new and improved
treatments and procedures.
Currently, dye-based tests, fluorescein
and indocyanine green angiography,
are considered the gold standards
for imaging and diagnosing
diseases of the retinal and choroidal
vasculature. However, both methods
require the intravenous injection of
fluorescent dyes followed by a series
of photographs using bright flashes
of light through
a dilated pupil.
Specialized cameras
and imaging
devices use hightech
filters that are
arranged to excite
and then detect the
fluorescent dyes
as they circulate
through the blood vessels in the
back of the eye.
These 10-15 minute tests have been
used by retinal specialists since the
early 1960’s to detect and diagnose
retinal diseases such as diabetic ret-
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