Abstract
Purpose :
To compare novel optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), which allows at present qualitative image analysis, with fluorescein angiography (FA) findings in patients affected by embolic branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO).
Methods :
In this prospective study subjects with acute and chronic BRAO were analyzed. The age of the patients ranged from 50 to 90 years. We included two female and 9 male patients. All sujects underwent a complete ophthalmological examination including fundus photography, FA and OCTA (AngioPlex, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc.). Qualitative OCTA analysis was performed on retinal images segmented into the superficial and deep retinal capillary plexus. In contrast to FA, OCTA gives a three-dimensional information on retinal capillary nonperfusion.
Results :
Eleven consecutive subjects were enrolled in this study. We examined six acute BRAO and five patients with chronic BRAO. Images of both methods are highly corresponding in acute and chronic BRAO concerning the area of flow interruption in OCTA and nonperfusion in FA. Zones of decreased vascular perfusion were more pronounced in the deep retinal capillary plexus in comparison to the superficial retinal capillary plexus in 9/11 eyes. In acute BRAO the quality of the images can be reduced by retinal edema, however it was sufficient for analysis. In chronic BRAO perfusion defects are better visible in OCTA images in comparison to FA.
Conclusions :
OCTA images generated from superficial and deep retinal capillary plexus allow detection of non-perfused areas in patients with acute and chronic BRAO equal to FA. In comparison to the superficial the deep capillary plexus seems to be more severely affected in the majority of patients. Advantages of OCTA are that this technique is non-invasive and allows for three-dimensional microvascular visualization. These findings suggest that OCTA has the capability to replace FA in the assessment of BRAO in most patients.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.