Abstract
Purpose :
To determine whether there were changes in choroidal thickness in patients with hemodynamically significant carotid stenosis and to evaluate if there was a choroidal thickness variation after endoarterectomy surgery.
Methods :
Prospective, longitudinal study. All the enrolled patients were affected by unilateral hemodynamically significative (>70%) carotid stenosis. The patients underwent complete ophthalmologic examination, IOP measurements, imaging using Enhanced Depth Imaging (EDI)-OCT Heidelberg, blood pressure and heart rate evaluation at baseline (before endoarterectomy) and then the same exams were performed 1 week, 1 month and 3 months from surgery. Choroidal thickness was measured at three predetermined points: subfoveal and 2 mm nasally and temporally from the fovea.
Results :
15 consecutive patients were recruited. A significant (p=0.007) difference (57. 75 + 12.4 um (mean + SD)) was found for choroidal thickness between ispilateral to carotid stenosis eye and controlateral one in the same patient. No significant difference was found in visual function, IOP, blood pressure and heart rate. A significant (p<0.05) difference was found in choroidal thickness before and after endoarterectomy surgery (170.25 + 92.24 um and 231 + 161.90 um, respectively), in particular at subfoveal point.
Conclusions :
Our data show that an hemodynamically significant stenosis is responsible for a reduction of choroidal thickness in the ipsilateral eye, which appears to improve after endoarterectomy surgery. Choroidal thickness seems to be related to carotid blood flow.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.