How does the retinal nerve fiber layer typically appear on OCT?

How does the retinal nerve fiber layer typically appear on OCT?

• A. Bright White
• B. Dark
• C. Gray
• D. Red-orange

Answer: (A)

On OCT, tissue reflectivity is shown in grayscale, with brighter pixels meaning higher backscatter. The retinal nerve fiber layer is made of tightly packed, organized axons that reflect a lot of light, so it shows up as a bright, highly reflective band on cross-sectional scans. This bright appearance is what clinicians rely on to gauge RNFL thickness and detect thinning in glaucoma. The other descriptions don’t fit because the RNFL in a normal B-scan is not dark or gray like low-reflectivity tissue, and red-orange isn’t how the standard grayscale OCT signal is displayed (color is used only in separate maps, not the basic B-scan).

On OCT, tissue reflectivity is shown in grayscale, with brighter pixels meaning higher backscatter. The retinal nerve fiber layer is made of tightly packed, organized axons that reflect a lot of light, so it shows up as a bright, highly reflective band on cross-sectional scans. This bright appearance is what clinicians rely on to gauge RNFL thickness and detect thinning in glaucoma. The other descriptions don’t fit because the RNFL in a normal B-scan is not dark or gray like low-reflectivity tissue, and red-orange isn’t how the standard grayscale OCT signal is displayed (color is used only in separate maps, not the basic B-scan).