Macular microvascular changes in uveitic patients; OCTA quantitative observational study

Author: Mohamed Ahmed (Egypt)

Co-authors:

Purpose

To quantitatively assess micro-vascular changes in retinal plexuses and choriocapillaries in patients with uveitis using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).

Setting/Venue

Department of Ophthalmology, Minia University, Minia, Egypt

Methods

Patients with confirmed diagnosis of heterogenous subtypes of uveitis and age-matched healthy controls were imaged by a commercial 70-kHz spectral domain OCT system (RTVue-XR, Optovue). Macular 3x3 & 6x6 mm2 scans with accepted quality were exported for customized processing that included projection artifact removal, semi-auto segmentation of retinal layers, bulk motion subtraction and shadow artifact. Vessel densities were computed on superficial vascular complex (SVC), intermediate capillary plexus (ICP), deep capillary plexus (DCP), and choriocapillaries compared between both groups using Mann–Whitney U test.

Results

Thirty-seven eyes from 37 uveitic patients and 30 eyes from 30 age and gender-matched controls (43.90 ± 11.10, 52.28 ± 12.76 years) were studied. Parafoveal and perifoveal vessel density values were significantly lower in patients compared to controls (P = 0.03 & 0.01) respectively. The peripapillary inner retinal vessel density was significantly lower in patients (80.21 ± 3.59) compared to controls (84.45 ± 4.33), (P = 0.009); also, vessel and capillary densities were significantly reduced in patients compared to controls in all segmented retinal slabs; choriocapillaries capillary density reduction was not statistically significant.

Conlusions

OCTA proved to be a promising non-invasive diagnostic tool for disease status confirmation and monitoring in uveitic patients. Patients with uveitis have reduced macular and choriocapillaris vessel density compared to normal controls.