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. 2022 Jun 27;11(13):3715.
doi: 10.3390/jcm11133715.

Optic Nerve Drusen Evaluation: A Comparison between Ultrasound and OCT

Nicola Rosa  1 , Maddalena De Bernardo  1 , Giulia Abbinante  1 , Gianluca Vecchio  1 , Ferdinando Cione  1 , Luigi Capasso  2
Affiliations

Optic Nerve Drusen Evaluation: A Comparison between Ultrasound and OCT

Nicola Rosa et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

This observational study compared optic coherence tomography (OCT) and B-scan in the detection of optic disc drusen. In total, 86 eyes of 50 patients with optic disc drusen (ODD) (36 bilateral) with a mean age of 34.68 ± 23.81 years, and 54 eyes of 27 patients with papilledema, with a mean age of 35.42 years ± 17.47, were examined. Patients with ODD, diagnosed with ultrasound, underwent spectral-domain OCT evaluation. With US, 28 ODD cases were classified as large (4 buried and 24 superficial), 58 were classified as point-like (6 buried, 49 superficial and 3 mixed). Then, all patients underwent OCT. OCT was able to detect the presence of ODD and/or peripapillary hyperreflective ovoid mass structure (PHOMS) in 69 eyes (p < 0.001). In particular, 7 eyes (8.14%) showed the presence of ODD alone, 25 eyes (29.07%) showed only PHOMS and 37 eyes (43.02%) showed ODD and PHOMS. In 17 eyes (19.77%) no ODD or PHOMS were detected. In the papilledema group, no ODD were observed with both US and OCT. OCT showed the presence of drusen or similar lesions in only 80.23% of the cases highlighted by the US scan, so it does not allow for certain ODD diagnoses, especially in the case of buried ODD.

Keywords: B-scan; OCT; PHOMS; optic disc drusen; ultrasound.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Ultrasound: Large optic disc drusen, visible as a highly reflective structure with posterior shadowing at the optic nerve level.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Ultrasound: Point-like optic disc drusen, visible as a highly reflective structure with a small posterior shadowing at the optic nerve level.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Optical coherence tomography: Large optic disc drusen, visible as a hypo-reflective structures with a total or partial hyperreflective margin, as described by the Optic Disc Drusen Studies (ODDS) Consortium. The hyperreflective margin is often more evident superiorly and can be difficult to detect.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Optical coherence tomography: A hyperreflective peripapillary structure similar to an ovoid mass peripapillary hyperreflective ovoid mass structure (PHOMS), as described in patients with optic disc drusen.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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