Abstract
Purpose :
Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) noninvasively provides information about optic nerve health. Previous studies have shown that optical coherence tomography (OCT) alone is unreliable when assessing optic nerve health in uveitis, due to edematous changes during inflammation [Moore et al, Ophthalmology. 2015;122(3):511-7]. The primary aim of this study was to analyze optic nerve peripapillary vasculature in uveitic disease using OCTA.
Methods :
Optic nerve images of 21 patients (35 eyes) were imaged using optical coherence tomography angiography (Optovue, Inc., Fremont, CA). Descriptive data including gender, visual acuity, and intraocular pressure was obtained. The peripapillary region of the optic nerve in each image was segmented into nasal, inferonasal, inferotemporal, superotemporal, superonasal, and temporal regions and the density of peripapillary vessels was measured. Comparative analysis amongst peripapillary vascular density in various regions was performed statistically via analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Results :
Eighteen female eyes were imaged, and visual acuity was 20/60 or worse in 2 eyes. Mean peripapillary vascular density in all regions was 58.71%. Peripapillary vascular density in the superonasal region of all optic nerves in uveitic patients was found to be significantly decreased to 54.25% compared to other regions (p = 0.0005). There was no significant difference in vascular density in any region when comparing eyes with active uveitic disease versus quiescent uveitis.
Conclusions :
OCTA provides useful information about optic nerve health in uveitic disease. Future studies aim to compare peripapillary vascular density in known uveitic eyes with glaucoma and non-glaucomatous uveitic eyes, and to determine whether OCTA can used reliably to assess optic nerve health as an alternate method to OCT in uveitic disease.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.