Abstract
Purpose :
Spontaneous contraction of the epiretinal membrane (ERM) often results in metamorphopsia. We aimed to examine vessel tortuosity using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) in patients with ERM and the correlation between the features and metamorphopsia.
Methods :
This prospective study included 48 eyes of 24 consecutive cases with unilateral ERM.Exclusion criteria included the presence of diabetic retinopathy. All patients underwent a full ophthalmologic examination including OCTA (Cirrus HD-OCT model 5000, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc., Dublin, USA). Horizontal metamorphopsia (MH) and vertical metamorphopsia (MV) scores were determined using M-CHARTS at the same time. The vessel length and Feret’s diameter in OCTA were measured with OpenCV version 3.3.0 and Image JVersion 1.51f (US National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA), respectively. The vessel length/Feret’s diameter (vessel tortuosity index; VTI) was calculated to estimate vessel tortuosity. The correlation between VTI and MH or MV was also examined.
Results :
VTI was significantly larger in the ERM eye (1.36±0.13) compared with the contralateral eye (1.30±0.09) (P=0.04, one-tailed t-test). The correlation coefficient between VTI and MH, and VTI and MV was 0.27 and 0.22, respectively (P=0.2 and 0.3, respectively).
Conclusions :
Vessel tortuosity measurement using OCTA may be useful for ERM detection but not for estimation of patient’s metamorphopsia.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.