Abstract:Objective To compare the roles of B-mode ultrasonography and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) in the diagnosis of senile posterior vitreous detachment (PVD). Methods A total of 62 old patients (over 60 years old, 70 eyes), with no obvious eye diseases or surgery history, refractive power within ±3 Diopter, and main complaint of flickering shadows, who admitted in Outpatient Department of our hospital from May to September 2015 were randomly enrolled in this study. All the patients underwent routine eye examination, B-mode ultrasonography, and SD-OCT, and the results of B-mode ultrasonography and SD-OCT were compared for the diagnosis of PVD. Results B-mode ultrasound results showed there were 39 cases of complete PVD (43 eyes, 61.4%) and 23 cases of incomplete PVD (27 eyes, 38.6%). OCT showed 19 cases were incomplete PVD (23 eyes, 32.8%), which was consistent with the results of B-mode ultrasound examination. OCT indicated that there were 43 cases (47 eyes, 67.1%) having no PVD, and all identified PVD were incomplete PVD. OCT results indicated that there were 11 eyes (15.7%) of macular epiretinal membrane, 4 eyes (5.7%) of macular hole, and 6 eyes (8.6%) of vitreomacular traction, and 9 eyes (12.8) of early age-related macular degeneration. Conclusion B-mode ultrasonography provides a significant higher detection rate of senile PVD than SD-OCT. But SD-OCT has more advantages than ultrasound in detecting the early incomplete PVD. Combination of B-mode ultrasonography and SD-OCT significantly improves the detection rate of PVD.