Abstract
Purpose :
Central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) is predominantly seen in young and middle-aged males. Women do not respond to epelernone therapy as well as males indicating that the disease characteristics may be different in females. This study evaluated the imaging characteristics of CSC in females.
Methods :
We conducted a cross-sectional study evaluating the demographic, imaging and type of CSC in females compared to age matched males. The proportions of acute CSC defined as a single episode, recurrent CSC characterised by multiple episodes of subretinal fluid (SRF) that resolved completely and chronic CSC that may be inactive or with persistent SRF were compared between the two genders. Other optical coherence tomography (OCT) characteristics including presence and height of subretinal fluid, pigment epithelial detachment (PED) and stalacites and changes in autofluorescence were also compared between males and females.
Results :
This study consists of 50 females versus 148 age-matched males with CSC. The mean age in females and males was similar at 52.31 and 52.37 years respectively. Nearly twice as many male eyes (11.3%) were affected with acute CSC compared to female eyes (5.97%). Diffuse retinal pigment epitheliopathy was significantly more prevalent in females (76.12%) compared to males (59.28%, p = 0.01). Compared to males, the mean height of subretinal fluid and the prevalence of PED are less in females than males. CSC tracts were more common in males than females. The most common autofluorescence patterns in females was stippled hyper and hypoautofluorescence in the area of current or previous subretinal fluid. Plaque like hypoautofluorescence changes affecting the fovea was associated with disruption of the ellipsoid layer on OCT and were equally distributed in both genders.
Conclusions :
The disease phenotype in females differs from males in that males are more prone to acute CSC. Diffuse retinal pigment epitheliopathy is more common in females and this may explain the lack of response with epelernone.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.