Purpose:
To describe simultaneous indocyanine green (ICG) angiographic and eye-tracked spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) findings in eyes with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV).
Methods:
Eleven eyes of 11 patients with PCV due to various different diagnoses were imaged with simultaneous ICG angiography and eye-tracked SD-OCT in order to localize the polypoidal structures with respect to the retinal layers.
Results:
Regardless of the underlying diagnosis, simultaneous ICG angiography and eye-tracked SD- OCT imaging localized the polypoidal structures of PCV to within larger type 1 neovascular complexes above Bruch’s membrane. In 10 eyes, PCV appeared to adhere to the undersurface of a retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) detachment. In 1 eye, the polypoidal structure was detected within the neurosensory retina having apparently eroded through the overlying RPE.
Conclusions:
Simultaneous ICG angiography and eye-tracked SD-OCT demonstrate that PCV is a variant of the type 1 neovascular growth pattern occurring in a variety of different neovascularized maculapathies. As the polypoidal structures in PCV appear to originate from longstanding choroidal neovascularization, not from the normal choroidal vasculature, PCV would be more accurately described as a neovasculopathy rather than as a choroidopathy.
Keywords: choroid: neovascularization • imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound) • imaging/image analysis: clinical