Introduction

Today the examination of the corneal angle in the veterinary practice is usually performed using a gonioscope. With this instrument we can determine whether the angle is open and the rate of the outflow of the aqueous humor, but not the exact degree of the angle.

Objectives

With optical coherence tomography (OCT), it is possible to determine the degree of the open corneal angle and the examination of the corneal angle in a histology-like depth and resolution as well. Our main goal is to show the usefulness of this instrument in the examination of the corneal angle in dogs.

Methods

The OCT's principle of operation is similar to that of the ultrasound system, but instead it applies laser light to scan the corneal angle in 5-µm resolution (Schuman et al.).

Results

In our clinical practice, we examined 285 dogs between the ages of 3 months and 15 years. With the OCT, we successfully took pictures of cataract and synechia-based narrow corneal angle. We have also taken pictures of open, normal, too-narrow and completely closed corneal angles.

Conclusions

We found that the OCT is able to determine the exact degree of the corneal angle, examine synechia and the inflammatory body within the corneal angle. Furthermore, the possibility exists to examine the corneal angle close to a histology-like way, without any invasive intervention.