Abstract
Purpose :
Optic pit is a congenital anomaly with malformation similar to coloboma of the optic disc. The cause of optic pit maculopathy is controversial. We used high resolution OCT to investigate changes in the vitreoretinal and vitreopapillary transition within eyes showing optic pits.
Methods :
The vitreoretinal and vitreopapillary transition of 12 eyes was accurately analyzed using SD-OCT (refer to attached example). We registered the following criteria: liquefaction of prepapillary vitreous, papillary vitreous traction, discontinuity within the hyaloid cortex, communication spaces between pit and retinal edema.
Results :
8 of the 12 patiens showed a prepapillary liquefaction of the vitreous. 4 eyes had a papillary vitreous traction. 4 showed a discontinuity in the hyaloid cortex. Communication gaps between pit and retinal edema were identified in 7 eyes. 2 of the 12 patients showed no maculopathy. Those patients had an adjacent papillary vitreous without prepapillary liquefaction. However all eyes showed vitreous liquefaction at some stage in the premacular or prepapillar region.
Conclusions :
Yet the cause of optic pit maculopathy is not clearly understood. The high resolution OCT imaging provides a very detailed assessment of the vitreoretinal transition in the prepapillar and premacular region, however with limitation in penetration depth and analyzation of deeper lying structures. Our observations suggest that alterations in the vitreopapillary transition could be a major cause of the optic pit maculopathy. In optic pit eyes this should be considered for any therapeutic approaches.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.