Abstract
Purpose :
It is often difficult to exactly detect the area of corneal neovascularization using slit-lamp photography. We evaluated corneal neovascularization in patients with limbal stem-cell deficiency using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).
Methods :
This study was conducted at Osaka University Hospital department of Ophthalmology. 31 patients of 41 eyes with partial and total limbal stem-cell deficiency were enrolled. (mean age 64.4±17.7years) (11 eyes with Stevens-Johnson syndrome, 10 eyes with Ocular pemphigoid, 10 eyes with chemical burn, 2 eyes with KID syndrome, 2 eyes with aniridia, 2 eyes with idiopathic, 4 eyes with other causes) Five images (frontal, upper, lower, nasal, temporal) with the size of 6mm x 6mm were obtained using OCTA (RTVue XR Avanti, Optovue, Fremont). Slit lamp photography was also taken for all patients. Quality of scans was graded 0-4. (Anijee DR Cornea 2012) Vascularization was graded 1-4 depending on the extent of corneal neovascularization.
Results :
Quality of scans by OCTA (3.0±0.7) was significantly higher than slit lamp photography (1.8±0.7) (p=0.003, Mann-Whitney Rank Sum test). Vascularization score (3.5±0.7) evaluated by OCTA was similar to slit lamp photography (3.6±0.6) (p=0.324, Mann-Whitney Rank Sum test). Representative cases are shown in Figures.
Conclusions :
OCTA is a powerful tool for evaluation on vascularization in anterior segment as well as posterior segment of the eye. It was shown that OCTA can visualize corneal neovascularization in patients with corneal diseases more clearly compared to slit lamp photography.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.