Abstract
Purpose :
The vessel depth information is useful in clinical diagnosis and management of corneal neovascularization (NV). We aimed in this study to develop a technique to quantify the depth of blood vessels associated with corneal NV.
Methods :
A cohort of patients with corneal NV from various etiologies was examined using a commercial spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) system (AngioVue, Optovue, Inc.) working at 840 nm wavelength. Corneal angiography scans were performed using the built-in AngioVue software with the corneal adaptor module (CAM) lens mounted. Using the CAM lens, the nominal scan sizes of 3 × 3 mm and 6 × 6 mm of the AngioRetina scan pattern correspond to 4.5 × 4.5 mm and 9 × 9 mm actual scan areas on cornea, respectively. The blood flow was detected using the AngioVue software. The cross-sectional OCT angiograms were overlaid with corresponding OCT images to determine the location of blood vessels inside the tissue. The percentage vessel depth was calculated as the distance between the blood vessel and anterior corneal surface divided by the corneal thickness. Anterior (above 25% of corneal depth), mid (25~60%), or posterior (>60% depth) corneal NV vessels were illustrated using different colors in vessel depth maps.
Results :
OCT angiography was performed on 9 eyes of 9 subjects with corneal NV associated with a variety of pathologies (interstitial keratitis, n=4; penetrating keratoplasty, n=2; limbal stem cell deficiency, n=2, and neurotrophic ulcer, n=1). The average vessel depth was measured to be 48.5% ± 15.6% in these cases.
Conclusions :
OCT angiography provided a non-invasive method to precisely evaluate the vessel depth in corneal NV.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.