Preface

This book aims to provide readers with new applications of optical coherence tomography (OCT) during clinical practice. The first section will focus on diseases affecting the cornea and conjunctiva: OCT is a posterior segment, traditionally used diagnostic device but is now very useful and interesting in evaluating the whole eyeball. Physicians will be able to recognize the most significant signs of described diseases to better handle them, making both earlier diagnosis and appropriate therapies possible. OCT defines new standards to recognize and standardize inflammation marks and this could be very useful for physicians facing diseases that could provide very aspecific signs and symptoms. In particular, diseases affecting the conjunctiva have not previously been studied with OCT, so this could be an exciting new prospect for OCT and is also focused on in this section.

The second section shows the application of OCT in macular diseases and new standards and definitions that are possible to obtain the latest version of this device. These improvements in the definition and precision of OCT scans are extremely useful to obtain help for early recognition of macular diseases and to apply proper treatments. New therapies purposed for macular diseases appear to be very promising but timing is a very crucial factor to obtain satisfactory results. Glaucoma patients are now undergoing OCT to recognize early defects of the disease before visual field defects appear. Moreover, to study retinal nerve fiber layers in these patients is helpful especially for those who have very deep visual impairment or other problems that do not allow them to perform a reliable visual field test. Chapters related to this topic will guide readers through the usefulness of OCT in evaluating glaucoma patients.

At the end of the book readers will have the chance to evaluate the usefulness of OCT in every ocular field and will have an idea of the new frontiers that are going to be overcome. I would like to thank all the authors and coauthors who worked hard in providing very high-quality chapters, and the editorial staff who made this book possible.

**II**

**Section 3**

of Glaucoma

*by Baswati Sahoo and Julie Pegu*

OCT in Glaucoma **119**

**Chapter 8 121**

Role of Optical Coherence Tomography in the Evaluation and Management

**Michele Lanza, MD, PhD** Università degli Studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Italy

**1**

Section 1

OCT in Corneal and

External Disease

Section 1
