Abstract
Purpose: :
To evaluate subfoveal choroidal thickness (CT) in patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease in the convalescent stage.
Methods: :
Patients with VKH disease in the convalescent stage (duration of the disease is more than one year) were included in this study. Eyes with systemic anti-inflammation therapy, active macula lesion, or high myopia (refractive error is less than -8 diopters) were excluded. Enhanced depth imaging OCT (EDI-OCT) was used to measure CT. The area of peripapillary atrophy (PPA) was measured using digitized imaging software prepared in fundus camera. The fundus of eyes were classified into two groups, i.e., having no or moderate depigmentation (Group A), or having severe depigmentation (Group B) of the fundus, by three masked uveitis specialists. Subfoveal CT or area of PPA were compared between the two groups. This study was approved by IRB of the university.
Results: :
Twenty eyes from eleven patients (6 men and 5 women, mean age ± SD = 58 ± 13 years) were enrolled in this study. The mean subfoveal CT of the all eyes studied was 208.6 ± 117.4 μm. A regression analysis revealed that the subfoveal CT inversely correlated with the disease duration (p=0.002), and was greater in Group A (n=9, 287.3 ± 126.5 μm) than in Group B (n=11, 144.3 ± 52.6 μm) (p=0.013). The area of PPA correlated with the disease duration (p=0.004), and was greater in Group B (2.97 ± 0.68 mm2) than in Group A (1.36 ± 0.49 mm2) (p=0.00002). An inverse correlation was seen between the subfoveal CT and the area of PPA (p=0.028).
Conclusions: :
The CT is thin in eyes with convalescent stage of VKH. The decreased CT appears to be correlated with the development of sunset-glow appearance and PPA.
Keywords: uveitis-clinical/animal model • imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound) • choroid