Abstract
Purpose :
To investigate the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) in patients affected by diabetic retinopathy (DR) and its correlation with peripheral retinal ischemic index (ISI).
Methods :
All patient underwent a comprehensive ocular examination including optical coherence tomography (OCT), OCT-A, ultra-widefield (UWF) retinography and UWF fluorescein angiography.
Results :
Twenty-one eyes of 14 patients (7 males, mean age 56.1 ± 14.4 years) were included. Mean ftFAZ, sFAZ and dFAZ areas were 0.320 ± 0.130 mm2, 0.325 ± 0.162 mm2 and 0.840 ± 0.329 mm2, respectively. Mean ISI was 14.6 % (range 0%-49.7%). A significant correlation was found between ISI and both ftFAZ (p = 0.0065) and sFAZ (p = 0.0052). DR grading correlated to ISI (p = 0.0053), ftFAZ (p = 0.0106), and sFAZ (p = 0.0119) areas. No significant correlation between ISI and dFAZ was appreciated. BCVA correlated to no variable other than CMT (p = 0.0003).
Conclusions :
The association between peripheral and macular perfusion found in this study supports the hypothesis that both these condition share a common pathogenic mechanism that is capillary non-perfusion
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.