B-Scan an Innocent Key to the Dynamic Lock

Copyright: © 2017 Thatte S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. *Corresponding author: Shreya Thatte, Department of Ophthalmology, Sri Aurobindo Medical college, India, E-mail: shreyathatte@gmail.com


Introduction
The ocular media, which is formed anteriorly by the tear film, cornea, aqueous humor, lens and posteriorly by vitreous humor [1] is an important factor for maintaining good visual acuity.Any alteration in the clarity of this media is responsible for the decrease in visual acuity whereas a complete opacification not only leads to gross visual deterioration but also, averts us from detailed ocular examination.It is very important to diagnose the posterior segment pathologies in such cases so that a treatment strategy can be planned, and the patient can be explained the probable prognosis.Any intervention in such cases without performing a thorough ocular examination and evaluation of posterior segment may lead to the suboptimal outcome.plana vitrectomy used, but in cases, with opaque media (complete opacification of the cornea, dense hyphaema, advanced cataract like senile mature cataract, hypermature cataract, dense organized vitreous hemorrhage etc.) posterior segment evaluation cannot be done.3. Brightness modulated scan also known as B Scan-is an anon-invasive diagnostic tool which is very efficient in evaluating gross posterior segment pathologies in cases of partial or complete opacification of ocular media and helps in confirming the diagnosis in cases with clear ocular media.
In 1956 ultrasound was first used by Mundt and Hughes for ocular diagnosis [1,2].Later Baum and Greenwood developed the first twodimensional B-scan for use in ophthalmology with immersion technique [1,3,4].The first commercially available contact B-scan, with a hand-held probe which could be directly applied to the closed lid, was introduced by Nathaniel Bronson in 1972 [1,5].B Scan works on the principle of ultrasonography i.e. high-frequency sound waves (10 MHz) are used to

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O p e n H U B f o r S c i e n t i f i c R e s e a r c h Citation: Thatte S, Satender S (2017) B-Scan an Innocent Key to the Dynamic Lock.J Ophthalmic Stud 1(1): doi http://dx.doi.org/10.16966/2639-152X.103 Open Access 2 produce a two-dimensional image of the minute structures on a screen [1].In these advancing years, it has proven to be a safe, noninvasive, and affordable tool for detection and differentiation of various ocular pathologies [1,6].It has become an important and accurate diagnostic device for evaluating posterior segment lesions in cases where a clinical examination and ophthalmoscopy is less informative, due to media opacity which may be caused by various pathologies like corneal opacity, hyphaema, dense cataract, and vitreous hemorrhage, inflammatory conditions etc. [7,8].Although B-Scan is a very handy and indispensable tool in ruling out gross pathologies of the posterior segment of the eye, but it has few limitations, as exact retinal pathologies like retinopathy and various types of maculopathy etc. cannot be ruled out based on echography.Our aim in this study was to diagnose gross posterior segment pathologies with media opacities of various types with the help of B Scan and decide the plan of management accordingly.It also helped in explaining the probable prognosis of visual outcome prior to management.

Material and Method
Present study is a randomized prospective study for assessment of posterior segment pathologies in cases of eyes with all types of media opacities coming to the outpatient department form the duration of November 2015 to March 2016 A total of 112 eyes of patients with various types of opacities of ocular media where posterior segment assessment was difficult by routine examination on slit lamp by 90D and direct and indirect ophthalmoscopy were taken for study.They were divided into different groups depending on the site of involvement and evaluated by B scan to note gross posterior segment pathology.
Group A (Corneal Pathology -Leucomatous opacity, healed ulcer, corneal melting, chemical burn, corneal degeneration) Group B (Aqueous -Hyphaema due to trauma) Group C (Lens -Mature cataract, hypermature cataract, Morgagnian cataract, hard brown cataract, and traumatic cataract) Group D (Vitreous -Vitreous hemorrhage) Detailed ophthalmic examination, which included a detailed history of the patient, visual acuity, and best corrected visual acuity(BCVA), tonometry and thorough slit lamp examination.Pre-and post-operative visual acuity was noted and grouped accordingly to assess the prognosis of intervention.
Patients and their relatives were explained, and consent was taken.B-Scan was done using the Optos Scan 3000 B scan machine with a handheld probe with a transducer using ultrasound frequency of 10 MHz.The examination was performed with the patient lying down in supine position over the couch, a water-soluble coupling jelly was applied on the head of the probe and it was gently placed over the closed eyelid.B scan was performed once the patient is comfortably lying down in three different views.
A. Transverse-Most commonly used mode.The probe is placed on the globe with probe face positioned parallel to the limbus or patients gaze directed away from the probe towards the meridian being examined.This orientation is appropriate for showing the lateral extent of a lesion.B. Longitudinal -Evaluation of a single meridian from its most posterior aspect to the far periphery.This is accomplished by directing the marker at the corneal limbus opposite the area to be examined.C. Axial-This is performed with the probe face centered on the cornea.
It displays the lens and optic nerve in the center of the echogram.Helpful, though, for documenting lesions and membranes in relation to the optic nerve and is also useful for evaluating the macular region D. Examination of vitreous may yield a variety of findings like (a) Vitreous degeneration-(Vitreous syneresis) which, appear as dotlike reflections which can be more pronounced in myopia or senile vitreous.(b) Asteroid hyalosis-(calcium-containing lipids suspended in the vitreous framework) produce bright, point-like echo sources on B-scan that may be diffuse or focal, normally there is an area of clear vitreous between the posterior boundary of the opacities and the posterior hyaloid and produce medium to high-reflective spikes that move with the vitreous gel.(c) Vitreous hemorrhage-dots and short lines are displayed on B-scan, and a chain of low-amplitude spikes is found on A scan.In cases of more dense hemorrhage-more opacities seen on B-scan with higher reflectivity on A-scan.In cases of organized vitreous hemorrhage, larger interfaces are formed, resulting in membranous surfaces on B-scan and even higher reflectivity on A-scan.Similarly, there are various other pathologies that can be detected like posterior vitreous detachment, synchysis scintillans, inflammation (uveitis), foreign body etc [1].
In cases with blunt trauma B scan was done with utmost care, avoiding any harm to the affected eye, whereas in cases with penetrating trauma it is advisable to do B scan only after primary repair and with aseptic precaution to prevent intense spread of infection and such cases were excluded from our study, with the help of B scan, it is possible to evaluate the amount of damage to the ocular tissue and the exact site of any intraocular foreign body can be located [8][9][10].
Postoperatively visual acuity, best corrected visual acuity was noted, and fundus examination was done in all cases.

Observation and Results
Out of total 112 cases, aged between 1 to 80 years, both male 64 (57.16%) and female 48 (42.84%) were taken.81 (72.32%) cases were of cataract and 31 (27.62%)cases of other media opacities, which involved cornea, anterior chamber and vitreous (Tables 1,2).B Scan was performed to evaluate the posterior segment, in 16.96% (19) cases with various corneal pathologies Cases of corneal melting following chemical injury (26.31%) echography showed normal posterior segment and all patient underwent sclero-corneal keratoplasty.Other cases of leucomatous opacity (26.31%), also had normal posterior segment and were further planned for penetrating keratoplasty, patients with healed corneal ulcer (21.05%) with vitreous degeneration underwent optical keratoplasty, patient with superficial corneal degeneration (15.77%) with normal posterior segment, lamellar keratoplasty was done, all these cases were operated under guarded visual prognosis.Whereas 2(10.55%)cases of corneal scar following trauma, had retinal detachment (Figure 1) and were referred to retina clinic for an opinion.Patients were advised keratoplasty followed by pars plana vitrectomy with endolaser and silicon oil injection.Based on echographic findings patients were counseled and were explained the need for secondary intervention.It was seen that only in 10.55% cases of corneal pathology group, B scan influenced the change of management strategy.
Another group of patients with anterior chamber involvement following blunt trauma with hyphaema i.e. in 8.92% (10) cases out of which 70% (7) cases with hyphaema had normal retina and were medically managed whereas 30% (3) cases with hyphaema had retinal detachment (Figure 2) were referred to retina clinic and underwent pars plana vitrectomy with endo laser and silicone oil injection (Table 3).
Out of 81 cases of various types of cataract patients were divided into two broad groups a) Non-traumatic 57 (70.37%) cases and b) Traumatic group 24 (29.62%)cases.In this group, higher numbers of cases were of  4).

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Whereas in the traumatic group of 24 patients, 14 (58.33%)patients with traumatic cataract belonged to the pediatric age group of 1-20 yrs., which correlated well as they are more involved in outdoor activities.9(37.50%)patients had a normal posterior segment, 7 (29.16%)had complete posterior vitreous detachment following blunt trauma all of them underwent cataract extraction under guarded visual prognosis.4 (16.66%) had retinal detachment (RD) (Figure 5) and remaining 4 (16.66%) had retinal detachment with vitreous hemorrhage (VH) these cases were referred to a vitreoretinal surgeon and underwent cataract extraction with pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) along with retinal detachment surgery.
1.76% (2) cases on ophthalmoscopy had dense vitreous hemorrhage (Figure 6) which obstructed the view of the retina, B scan ultrasonography revealed normal posterior segment.They were medically managed with regular follow up.
In this study, 86.60% patients underwent surgical intervention as planned.Whereas in 11.60% (13 of 112) cases, there was a change in strategy and they underwent cataract surgery followed by retinal surgery (Table 5).
Pre-operatively most of the patients (96.42%) had visual acuity 3/60 or less including all the groups.We observed an improvement in   Open Access

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postoperative visual acuity in 88.38% cases of which 74.10% had a visual acuity better than 6/24 on Snellen's chart.There were 1.78% cases of chemical injury that had minimum improvement postoperatively.
The sensitivity and specificity of B Scan were statistically derived and was found to 100% along with 100% positive and negative predictive value.

Discussion
B scan has proven to be a very handy device for the accurate evaluation of posterior segment pathologies in cases with all types of opaque media.This study has included all types of media opacities under one heading to diagnose posterior segment lesions and observe the influence of B scan on the management strategy.A total of 112 patients were divided into four different groups based on site of involvement i.e.Group A -Corneal pathology (16.96%),Group B-Anterior chamber involvement (8.92%), Group C-various types of advanced cataract (72.32%) and Group Dvitreous opacities (1.76%).Such that influence of B scan on treatment plan can be understood in each group individually.
In a study conducted by Ramadhas et al [15] 100% specificity and sensitivity of B scan was reported in cases with normal posterior segment, this correlated well with the current study, but slightly decreased sensitivity was reported in vitreous haemorrhage (95.23%) with 100% specificity whereas it was 100% sensitive and specific in all groups in the present study (Table 6).
In corneal pathology group 16.96% (19), 68.42% had a normal posterior segment on B scan ultrasonography, 21.05% in this category had vitreous degeneration all of them underwent keratoplasty surgery as per plan.But 10.52% cases had retinal detachment along and were referred to a retinal surgeon for opinion and further planning.A study by Ramadhas et al [15], 10.88% cases of corneal opacities was reported but specific echographic findings have not been declared.There were no such studies that incorporated the management plan for corneal opacities.Maximum patients (89.47%) of this group in our study underwent planned modality and were followed up accordingly.
Advanced cataract (72.32%) was reported as the most common media opacity leading to visual impairment and the most common indication of diagnostic B scan in the present study and other studies [13,15,16].In the traumatic group, 10.71% cases were of 11 to 20 years in the present study which correlated well with their age as they are more prone to trauma due to involvement in outdoor activities and this trend was seen in other       studies as well [9,14,17].Maximum cases (52.67%) in non-traumatic cataract group belonged the senile age group of 41 to 70 years which correlated well with other studies [14][15][16][17].About 60.49% cases of advanced cataract (both traumatic and nontraumatic) had normal posterior segment on echography which did not correlate well with the studies by Ramadhas et al. [15] and Meenakshi et al. [8] where a lower number (41.58% and 46% respectively) had normal posterior segment, which could possibly be due to a wide variation in their sample size i.e. 65 and 490 respectively.Contrastingly Jatin Garg et al. [14] reported a higher number of cases (83.55%) with normal echography in a sample size of 158 eyes.
Cataract group was broadly divided into the traumatic and nontraumatic group in the study by Jatin et al. [14], Meenakshi et al. [8] and in the present study as well.In the traumatic group, cases of RD were 22.72% 2.85% and 16.66% followed by VH 22.72% and 2.09% and 1.76% respectively.RD with VH (4.54% and 16.66%) cases were seen in the current study and by Jatin et al. [14] only.We reported a higher number of cases with PVD (29.16%) in comparison to Meenakshi et al. [8] (1.22%).The most common finding was RD in this category [8,14].
Posterior segment pathologies were much lower in the non-traumatic group.Asteroid hyalosis was reported by Jatin et al. [14] (0.73%), Meenakshi et al. [8] (0.8%) and in the present study (5.26%) as well.Only the current study and Meenakshi et al. [8] had reported posterior staphyloma (3.50% and 0.8% respectively).Jatin et al. [14] in his study reported PVD (2.94%), RD (2.20%), VH (1.47%) whereas no such cases were seen in the present study.Vitreous degeneration (29.10%) was reported as most common finding in this group which did not correlate with any of the studies.Both Jatin et al. [14] and Meenakshi et al. [8] were restricted to cases of advanced cataract only and did not emphasize on how B scan led to modification in their plan of management The other group wherein vitreous was the primary cause of media opacity, we observed a very low number (1.76%) which on B scan had no retinal pathology and were managed medically.Whereas Agrawal R and Ahirwal S [9], found vitreous hemorrhage (56.41%) as the most common pathology, although their study was a diagnostic study which included patients with the clear ocular media and opaque media.
We also recorded the pre-and postoperative visual acuity to assess the prognosis and found that 88.38% patient had a visual acuity better than 6/24 post-operatively.Although, patients with chemical injury, corneal scar with RD, posterior staphyloma and traumatic cataract with RD (11.60%) showed improvement, postoperative visual acuity less than 6/60.These patients were counseled beforehand about the probable prognosis prior to surgical intervention based on the diagnosis made on echography.Open Access

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To the best of our knowledge, there are a lot of studies performed on the diagnostic role of B scan ultrasonography in various types of media opacities [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] but there is no study on the prognostic role of B scan.In the present study, we not only diagnosed pathologies on B scan but also explained the gross prognosis of the visual outcome of the planned modality to the patient and their relatives which other studies did no emphasize upon [8,9,14].We also studied the influence of B scan on our management strategy and found to have changed in management strategy in 11.60% cases in total from all the groups.

Conclusion
We concluded that two-dimensional B-scan ultrasonography is an excellent diagnostic tool for evaluation of posterior segment in cases with opaque ocular media which is non-invasive, cost-effective, easily available quick investigative technique which is sensitive and specific and almost accurate in detecting gross posterior segment pathologies.B scan should be routinely done in all cases of media opacities as it helps to explain the gross visual prognosis and secondary procedures if required.It serves a mode of documentation and makes us medicolegally sound by safeguarding our position With the advent of better and sophisticated technology, the present B scan technique will be upgraded to next level where with the use of better piezoelectric crystals and broadband transducers a good imaging technique.A three and four-dimensional imaging in ophthalmic ultrasound would be possible and new doppler modes are under research with the help of which retinal blood flow can be visualized.A newer technique known as elastographic imaging, with the help of which not only ocular but periocular tissue can be visualized [1].It would be justifiable to mention that the future of ophthalmic echography especially B Scan in bright and it will help in better understanding of ocular tissue and various pathological conditions.
O p e n H U B f o r S c i e n t i f i c R e s e a r c h Citation: Thatte S, Satender S (2017) B-Scan an Innocent Key to the Dynamic Lock.J Ophthalmic Stud 1(1): doi http://dx.doi.org/10.16966/2639-152X.103Open Access 3 the senile age group, 67 (82.71%) cases aged between 41 to 80 yrs.and remaining 14 (17.28%) were of pediatric age group i.e. 1 to 20 yrs.In the non-traumatic group of 57 patients, on pre-operative echographic evaluation, 40 (70.17%)cases had normal posterior segment, 12 (21.05%)had vitreous degenerations (Figure 3), 3 (5.26%)had asteroid hyalosis, 2 (3.50%) had posterior staphyloma (Figure 4) all the cases underwent cataract extraction with IOL implantation under guarded visual prognosis.Detailed fundus examination was done to confirm B scan findings first follow up (Table

Figure 2 :
Figure 2: Retinal detachment seen in a case hyphema due to blunt trauma.

Figure 3 :
Figure 3: Vitreous degenerations in case of mature cataract.

Figure 5 :
Figure 5: Retinal detachment seen in a case of traumatic cataract.

Table 1 :
Age wise distribution of various media opacity.

Table 5 :
Showing visual acuity pre-and post-operatively

Table 6 :
Showing sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value(NPV) of B scan in present study.