Abstract
Purpose :
Age is known to influence choriocapillaris (CC) perfusion. To the best of our knowledge, flow signal and non-flow areas have not been evaluated simultaneously in a large population. We performed a retrospective, observational study to evaluate the relationship between age and both non-flow area and flow signal in the choriocapillaris of the macular region, as measured using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).
Methods :
87 eyes of 87 healthy volunteers were examined using a high-speed and high-resolution spectral-domain OCT XR Avanti system with a split-spectrum amplitude de-correlation angiography algorithm. Choriocapillaris images were analysed to determine the choriocapillaris decorrelation index (CCDI), flow voids greater than 10,000 µm2 (FV10000) and signal voids greater than 40,000 µm2 (FV40000).
Results :
The mean patient age was 30.55 ± 14.59 years. Mean CCDI was 116.40
± 5.64, mean FV10000 65.85% ± 7.75 and mean FV40000% 36.87 ± 15.04. Correlations between age and respectively CCDI, FV10000 and FV40000 showed a moderate but significant correlation (r = -0.3545, p = 0.0008;r = 0.3626, p = 0.0006; r =0.3897, p = 0.0002).
Conclusions :
Our results suggest an enlargment of non-flow areas with increasing age, which could explain the decrease in overall flow signal.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.