Abstract
Purpose: :
to evaluate choroidal thickness (CT) in adult onset foveomacular vitelliform dystrophy (AOFVD) and the relation with visual acuity and refractive errors.
Methods: :
21 eyes of 12 patients (4 male and 8 female, mean age 77.5 ± 5.7yrs) were enrolled. Patients with any other ocular disease or refractive errors > 6 diopters (D) were excluded. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was determined using Snellen chart and was converted to logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) for statistical analysis. Bilateral choroidal thickness was determined using enhanced depth imaging (EDI) by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT, Spectralis, Heidelberg Engineering, Germany). Choroidal thickness was measured at the fovea and 1500µm nasally, temporally, superiorly and inferiorly to the fovea. Spearman correlation coefficient was used to investigate the influence of visual acuity and refractive errors on CT. P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Results: :
Mean subfoveal choroidal thickness ± SD was 227.52 ± 63.1 µm, inferior CT was significantly thicker than subfoveal CT (244.8±63.3 µ, p<0.05), whereas nasal CT was significantly thinner than subfoveal CT (206.52±66.05µ, p<0.01). In patients with unilateral lesions CT was significantly thicker than fellow eye in all the four examined location (301±60.09 µm vs. 220.6±67.41 µm respectively for subfoveal CT, p < 0.05,). The mean subfoveal CT in the eyes with vitelliform lesions was 211±58.1µm, 242.83±75.3µm at the pseudohypopyon stage, and 229.6±59.45µm at the atrophic stage. In our study only 1 eye presented vitelliruptive stage (CT 294µm). Mean BCVA was 0.3±0.6 logMAR and mean spherical equivalent refractive error was +1.98±3.05 D. No correlation was noted between choroidal thickness and refractive errors, and between CT and visual acuity (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, r= 0.08 and r=-0.24, p= 0.69 and p=0.25 respectively).
Conclusions: :
The EDI SD-OCT allows to delineate choroidal structure non invasively in vivo. Mean choroidal thickness in eyes with AOVFD was thicker than fellow eye. Morphological modifications of the choroid at different stages of the disease may play a role in the pathogenesis of AOFVD.
Keywords: macula/fovea • imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound) • choroid