Dr. Jody Pittman and the Professional Eye Care team recently purchased a Carl Zeiss Cirrus 5000 High Definition Optical Coherence Tomographer.
“This equipment is commonly available only at larger facilities such as the Mayo Clinic and Emory. I am proud to know we are the third optometric clinic in the state to provide this advanced technology to our patients,” Pittman said. “State-of-the-art technology is very expensive; however, the Zeiss OCT allows for superior patient care, locally, and eliminates the burden of driving out of town. Advanced technology and the doctors’ specialized skill set allows Professional Eye Care to not only continue to meet the growing demand, but provide superior outcomes for surgery and eye diseases related to diabetes, hypertension, glaucoma, macular degeneration, cataracts, etc.”
Optical coherence tomography is a non-invasive image-acquisition technique used for evaluating the eye’s retinal structures. The OCT captures an image similar to an ultrasound, with the exception of its use of a super-luminescent light source instead of sound, thus yielding much higher resolution images.
The Zeiss OCT performs approximately 50,000 A scans/second to provide a detailed, high-definition image. The cross-sectional image then is evaluated similarly to how pathologists assess a speciman slide or radiologists evaluate a MRI.
“This method enhances the doctor’s ability and allows a greater understanding of different disease/pathology development, and ultimately allows us to better serve our patients,” Pittman said.