Abstract
Purpose :
To characterize the features of type 1 choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) and qualitatively and quantitatively compare them with findings in indocyanine green angiography (ICGA).
Methods :
Treatment-naïve and treated patients diagnosed type 1 CNV were included in our study. All patients underwent multimodal imaging by fluorescein angiography (FA), ICGA, spectral domain (SD)-OCT, and OCTA. Lesion area, as well as vessel density were measured on choriocapillaris segmentation of OCTA and on ICGA middle and late frames.
Results :
Twenty eyes of 18 patients (12 treatment-naïve and 8 treated eyes) with a mean age 80.4 ± 8.2 were included. The mean visual acuity was 20/32. OCTA revealed a high flow neovascular network in the choriocapillaris segmentation in all study eyes in all eyes. A distinctive feeder vessel was present in 11/20 eyes (central feeder vessel in 8/20 eyes and lateral feeder vessel in 3/20 eyes, while in 9/20 eyes a feeder vessel could not be detected. Lesion size in OCTA images had a mean area of 2.18 mm2 (± 1.97) and a mean vessel area of 1.17 mm2 (± 1.01), while in ICGA the mean lesion size was 3.52 mm2 (± 4.28) in the middle phase and 3.88 mm2 (± 4.64) in the late phase images. A statistically significant difference between lesion size in OCTA and ICGA was detected in 17/20 eyes (p<0.005).
Conclusions :
Our results suggest and support the hypothesis that OCTA could show the actual minimal surface of type 1 CNV, because, as a dyeless examination, it is not influenced by leakage. Moreover, as a depth-enhanced, highly reproducible technique, OCTA is suitable for type 1 CNV localization and follow up.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.